Realizations
by turtle001
Summary: Annie is taken hostage when her op and cover are blown. How will she get out and how will everyone react to the stress?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! So this is my first story EVER! I was just reading some fics and it got me in a writing mood, so I decided to try my hand at it. I have no idea how I did, but if yall would R&R I would appreciate it. I really just wanted to see how everyone liked my story and see if I'm any good at writing, because I do enjoy it, I just don't know if what I write is any good. Ok, enough of me talking…hope yall enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Covert Affairs…if I did, we wouldn't have this so called break right in the middle of the season!**

* * *

><p>"Annie! You gotta get out of there! Someone tipped them off and they know you're in there!"<p>

Annie was about to reply when suddenly a big explosion went off in front of her. Annie was flung backwards with the ceiling and walls falling all around her. As the dust and debris started to clear, Annie saw that this was not a tiny explosion. This explosion just about blew up the whole building. As she tried to stand up, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle. She let out a gasp and fell back to the floor. Her ankle was badly sprained. At least, she hoped that's all it was. Annie was starting to get up again when she saw two men walking through the mess, apparently checking out the damage. Before she could decide what to do, the two men saw her and started towards her.

"Well, well, well. It looks like somebody was in the wrong place at the wrong time, weren't you? What shall we do with you I wonder?" Annie could hear the deep Russian accent as the man spoke. The man had an evil grin on his face and Annie could see tattoos up and down both of his giant arms.

"Let's take her to Anton, see if she was the spy he was talking about," the other man said. He was much smaller than the other guy, but Annie could tell he was in charge.

As the big guy started towards her, Annie thrust her palm into his face, breaking his nose. While he was howling in pain, Annie had managed to somewhat stand. Ignoring the pain, she tried to run away from this place as fast as she could. As she started to turn, the big guy yanked her back by her arm. Annie thrust her knee up, effectively putting the man on the floor in pain. Just as she was about to turn around she felt a gun being pushed against her back.

"Don't move. You try anything and you get a bullet put straight through your liver. Now get up and follow me! We have something special set up for you, my little CIA friend." The smaller of the two had been watching the fight occur, and intervened when he deemed necessary.

"You know I can't very well get up and follow you if you don't want me to move right?"

Suddenly she felt a fist connect to her face. Apparently Muscle Man was not too happy with Annie at the moment. Annie willed herself not to make a sound.

"Not another word from you or you will receive much worse than that."

Something was wrong. This mission was one of the more classified missions she had ever been on. Only a select few had been given the specifics, most of them seventh floor suits. How in the world did they know she was coming? She wanted to make an escape, but with a gun being pushed into your back and a messed up ankle, there was little one could do. As they were walking she felt a needle going into her arm. Annie gasped involuntarily and jerked her arm away. As they continued walking, she felt herself getting sluggish, and it was getting harder to form coherent thoughts. Just as she was about to pass out, she heard the voice of a different Russian talking.

"Is that the spy?"

"Yes. And she's a feisty one too. Dmitri's going to have fun with this one."

Annie could almost hear the evil grin on his face. The last thought that went through her head before she passed out was that these guys were cold, heartless, son of bitches, and that she hoped she made it out of here just to kick their asses for everything that they had done.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Auggie was not the type of person to freak out. He stayed calm when a gun was pointed to his head, when he was trapped by an explosion, and even while he was getting chewed out by Joan. Nothing could rattle his nerves. No one had actually ever seen Auggie freak out. He was the epitome of calm, until he had heard the explosion.

Auggie was already stress, knowing that Annie was in danger. He was also furious. How the hell did those assassins get tipped off? This wasn't a normal op. So when he heard a giant explosion and then static, Auggie did not react well.

"Annie! Annie! Answer me Annie! Damn it Annie, speak to me!" When the only thing that answered him was more static, Auggie ran from his chair and to Joan's office, almost knocking Stu down in the process.

"Hey! Watch where you're…"

That was about all Auggie heard before he burst into Joan's office. He could tell he had just interrupted an important meeting. He may not be able to see, but you wouldn't have to, to be able to feel the glares he was receiving. But at the moment, Auggie didn't care. All he cared about was Annie.

"Auggie. Is there a reason you burst into my office?" Joan said with a clipped tone.

"Annie. Something's wrong. Her cover was blown. Somebody tipped them off. As she was leaving, I heard a giant explosion, and now all I'm getting is static. She isn't answering and she hasn't checked in to any of the safe houses we had set up. I-We have to go save her!" Auggie said all of this in one breath. He wasn't even sure if Joan understood any of what he said.

Immediately, Joan excused herself and rose from her seat. The fact the somehow, the mission got leaked was disturbing. Not to mention that one of her favorite agents (not that she would admit this aloud) was MIA. She walked over to Auggie, and together went back to his desk to see what they knew so far. The fact that Auggie was freaking out also disturbed Joan. The only other time she had seen Auggie so upset and riled was after Tikrit.

At that moment, Joan realized that if they lost Annie, they wouldn't just lose one person, they'd lose two. Ever since Annie had come to the CIA, Auggie had been a different person. He was happier and more relaxed. He had found a great friend in Annie, and possibly something more. Annie had affected almost everyone she met at the CIA. Even herself. She could see part of herself in Annie, and she knew that it would be hard to handle if they lost her. Joan promised herself at that moment that they would do almost anything to get Annie back.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, that was my first chapter! Please R&R, even if you hated it, but please be nice about it. I want to get better at writing, so anything constructive I will gladly take! I also promise to try and make future chapters longer...I honestly thought it was longer while I was writing it...but I guess not. So I'll work on that :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I just want to thank everyone for their reviews. They made my day :) So, as far as this story goes, I don't really have a plot set up. I just write as it comes. I have an ending in mind, but I don't even know how long this will be. Another thing, I will not be on a schedual for updating. School is about to start, I'm trying to finish up my homework plus I am in a lot of extra curricular stuff. I will try my best though, so don't give up on me! Ok, enough of my rambling...on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Covert Affairs, nor will I ever **

* * *

><p>"What do we know so far?"<p>

"Annie was going to go undercover to get on the inside of a Russian group that has been terrorizing Moscow and other cities all around the world. These guys are bad. Their boss, Boris, is even worse. They've killed and tortured a lot of people…some of them even kids. The op was one of our more secretive ops because this gang is known for traveling to different places, setting up base, causing terror, and then when they get bored moving on to the next place. Our Intel says that their next location was going to be the United States. Annie was going undercover and on her way to try and establish contact with one of the guys, an explosion went off. We haven't heard anything since…Joan we have to do something! We can't leave Annie in Moscow by herself with these guys! We have to-"

"Auggie! Calm down. We are going to get Annie back, but we need you to calm down. You aren't going to be any help to Annie like this." Joan said. She could see how much this was affecting him. Even though he couldn't technically see, Joan could have sworn that Auggie was looking right at her, desperation in his brown eyes.

Auggie took a deep breath. He needed to calm down and take back control. He was upset with himself for freaking out in the first place; it was doing Annie no good. No matter how worried he was, he needed to be calm so he could help get her back. Auggie couldn't lose Annie.

"Sorry Joan. I-I'm good. What do you need me to do?"

Joan saw that quick change in Auggie. His eyes, that just seconds ago were filled with desperation, were replaced with determination. Out of the corner of her eye, she could also see that every person in the room had been listening to the whole conversation with rapt attention.

"Check up on this group. See if they have any place that's connected to them. Find out anything that could help us find where they took Annie. We know their headquarters got blown up, but there has to be another place connected to them."

The scene that unfolded before Joan's eyes made her realize just how much Annie affected, not just Auggie, but almost everyone in the DPD. Once she had dismissed Auggie, everyone in Tech Ops went to their computers with determination in their eyes and started researching everything they could. Joan knew that most of them had other jobs to do, but she had never seen one agent affect so many people…and that made her that much more determined to find Annie.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

As Annie slowly woke up, she tried to assess where she was. Her hands and feet were bound with strip ties and she was lying on a cold concrete floor in a dark, windowless room. The only light was coming from the crack in the steel door. Now that the adrenaline was gone, Annie could feel all of her injuries. Her ankle was swollen badly and a very nasty shade of purple. She had little cuts and bruises all around her body from the explosion, with a particularly nasty one on her side and back. Her shoulder also hurt like hell from being yanked by Muscle Man. Compared to previous injuries, these weren't too bad. But her ankle, having had the chance to just swell and get bigger, was not going to make it easy to escape, and that was only if she could get these binds off. All of a sudden she heard some guy yelling outside the door.

"Why is there a girl sitting in my dungeon? We are supposed to be packing up so we can head to the United States! Explain yourself!" said a furious sounding Russian guy. Annie could only assume that this was their leader, Boris.

"Sir, our informant had mentioned a spy coming to shut down our business. They discovered that we were heading to the United States, though the exact location they did not know. This girl was snooping around our main headquarters, so we blew the place up so she would not find anything and took her in." said another man.

"I see. And you all decided to blow up our headquarters, where all of our information is!"

"No sir. We transferred everything to the computers here before we blew it up."

"OK. Well, let us see what our little American spy can tell us. Dmitri and Adrik, come with me."

Annie then could hear footsteps getting closer to her door and a shadow growing bigger and bigger. She could hear the sound of keys jingling and the loud, metallic click of the lock. When the door opened, Annie was momentarily blinded from the bright light of the other room. We she could finally see again, she saw a fairly big man, whom she assumed was Boris, walking towards her. He had tattoos up and down his arms and a crude scar across the right side of his face. This man was being flanked by two other guys. One of them she recognized as Muscle Man who had fought her. The other guy was about the same size as Muscle Man, but bore no tattoos as far as she could see. However, she could see the many scars covering his body. The thing that bothered her the most though, was the sadistic gleam in his eye.

"Well hello, hello. My name is Boris. This is Dmitri and Adrik," Boris said. "Would you like to tell me what your name is? We know you're a spy and we like to know the names of the people we are going to torture." He said this as plainly as if he were explaining the weather.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about! I'm not a-"

"Silence! Do not lie to us! We both know that you are a spy and there are consequences to lying."

Adrik, the man with no tattoos, walked over to Annie and placed a hard kick into Annie's stomach. Annie felt the air rush out of her lungs and she curled up instinctively from the kick. However, Annie did not make a sound. She wasn't going to let these people get the best of her.

"Is that all you got? I've gotten worse punishments from my Grandma!" Annie spat. Normally she would keep up her cover, but she could see it was useless with these guys. Spy or not, they would be down here torturing her. She heard them laughing at her outburst. These guys got a kick out of torturing people. But if she could stall long enough, maybe the guys back at Langley could track this place down, stop them, and hopefully save her.

"You have some spunk, I will give you that. But I can promise that was just a tiny taste of what we can do. But that is not why I came in here. I came in here to ask you some questions. Hopefully you won't lie to us." Boris said with a smile. This smile made Annie's skin crawl. It was a smile of a man who had done this way too often and enjoyed it.

"We will start with a simple one. Who do you work for?"

Annie just started into Boris's eyes, keeping her mouth shut. After a couple of seconds with Annie still staying quite, Boris just smiled.

"No? You don't want to tell us…maybe Dmitri can change your mind. Dmitri?"

This time, Annie saw it coming. Bracing herself for the kick, she tightened her muscles right before the kick came. Again she felt all of the air rush out of her, and again Annie made no noise.

"Now, I'm going to ask again. Who do you work for?"

Again, Annie did not answer, and again Dmitri aimed a hard kick to her stomach. This repeated itself for about ten minutes before Boris signaled him to stop.

"Well, you are a lot tougher than most of the young girls that come through here," Boris said, chuckling. Annie felt a wave of fury rush through her. How many girls have been subjected to their torturing?

"Do not fear; we will be back. If you thought that was bad, you don't want to see what else we have planned for you."

With one last, sadistic grin, Boris turned around and walked out, signaling for Dmitri and Adrik to follow. Annie took a deep breath the moment the door closed. It was painful to breathe and Annie feared what was to come. Shaking herself of those thoughts, Annie thought back to Langley. She thought about Auggie and how worried he must be. Annie knew that he was probably freaking out that she hadn't answered or checked in. Well, freak out as much as Auggie could. She couldn't imagine him losing his calm. Even during her missions, he was always calm, always there to guide her through it. But she knew he worried, she could hear it in his voice every time something went wrong, which happened quite often. Annie wished she had his voice in her ear right now, comforting her and telling her everything was going to be alright. Now that Annie thought about it, Auggie was always there to comfort her whenever she was upset or need to vent about something. She didn't think she could have made it through her first couple of years at the CIA without him.

The loud, metallic click of the lock shook Annie from her thoughts. Blinded by the bright light again, she heard the sound of two metal bowls hitting the floor and the door slamming shut, followed by the sound of the lock. When Annie could see again, she saw that the bowls were filled with food and water. She became angry all over again seeing the bowls on the floor. Was she just some pet that they kept for entertainment? Annie wouldn't have eaten the food, but she couldn't remember the last time she ate and she didn't know how often they would feed her. Annie scooted over to where the bowls were, a hard task when your feet are bound and one of the said feet had an ankle the size of a grapefruit.

Finally Annie reached the bowls and ate hungrily. She didn't notice how hungry she actually was until that food touched her mouth. The food was some slob equivalent to the meatloaf they served at school on Meatloaf Mondays, but Annie ate the whole bowl in less than five minutes. She then moved to the water. It almost stung her dry throat, but was grateful. Soon that bowl was empty too.

Annie scooted back to her corner and leaned against the wall. She didn't know how much longer she was going to be in here, but she was determined to find out as much as she could about this guys. She didn't know if she was going to get out, but she was determined to take them down with her.

* * *

><p><strong>Hope yall enjoyed the chapter! Please R&amp;R, I love reading the reviews :) Any comments or advice yall have I would love to hear. And...I have to say it, while I was writing Boris saying you all, I had to phsyically go back, erase the yall I had written, and then stop myself before I wrote it again. Just shows how much I use the word, and I gotta say, I love it :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

Annie was awakened by the loud metallic click of the lock. Blinded by the bright light, all Annie could make out was the silhouettes of three men. Once her eyes became adjusted to the light, she saw Boris, Dmitri, and Adrik.

"So how did our little spy sleep? Well I hope. We wanted to ask some questions again, see if you remembered anything after a good night's sleep." Boris said with a smile.

Annie just glared at the men, not saying anything. Her night in fact, was not good. Nightmares plagued her all night, waking her up every couple of hours. The last thing she wanted to do was be interrogated and tortured by these men. But it's not like she had choice.

Boris gave Dmitri and Adrik a signal, and they both came up on either side of Annie and grabbed her arms. All Annie could do was to watch Boris watch her with an amused smile on his face. Then he walked up to Annie, inches away from her face.

"You know, you are a very beautiful woman." He said while he brought his hand up to caress her face. As soon as his fingers touched her face, Annie snapped at them. No way in hell was this guy allowed to touch her in such a way. Boris whipped back his fingers with a grunt of pain and gave another sign to his henchmen. This time, Adrik was the one who gave a swift but hard punch to Annie's gut. Annie bent over in pain, but soon straightened up, not letting out a sound.

Now glaring at Annie, Boris said in a calm voice, "Now, now, now. Didn't they teach you back in daycare to play nice?" Annie just glared at him, not wanting to give him another reason to hit her. "Well, let's see if you remember anything shall we?"

In her mind, Annie was scared. Not that she would ever show it, but just some of the things these guys did for fun was enough to leave her petrified of what they would do when they really wanted something. Just the thought of what they did to the people before her was enough to send her blood boiling with rage. If it was the last thing she did, she was going to make sure these guys couldn't hurt another person. If all she could do to help was gather as much information as she could and give it to the CIA, then that was what she was going to do.

A swift kick to her stomach stopped Annie's thoughts and left her out of breath. "Once again, I'm going to ask you, who do you work for?" Boris asked with a calm voice, like he does this every day, which he probably does. Just like the day before, Annie said nothing and braced herself for the kick. Except that the kick never came. Instead she saw the glint of metal being pulled out of Boris's pocket. Knowing what was coming next, Annie struggled to pull free of the men's grasp on her arms as the knife closer to her body. But Adrik and Dmitri held her down tight and the next thing Annie felt was cool metal pressed against her stomach, making her abs clench. Annie couldn't hold in her gasp of pain as Boris slowly glided the knife down her stomach. She could feel the blood running down her body.

A small chuckle made Annie look back at Boris, where she saw him looking at her with a cruel smile on his face. Annie felt her stomach drop when she realized he just didn't do this because it was his "job" or because he liked it. He loved to torture people and make them squirm.

"Not what we were expecting was it? Like I said, this is only a taste of what we can and will do. It would be best to just tell us everything. I promise you, it would save us a lot of time and you a lot of pain. So, once again, I am going to ask you, who do you work for?"

When all Annie did was glare back at him, Boris made another long cut across her stomach, but this time Annie was expecting it, and held in her gasp of pain. Just like the day before, this continued on for a while, Boris alternating between cuts and punches. Finally after asking the question for what felt like the hundredth time, Annie, frustrated, spoke for the first time.

"If I didn't answer the question the first twenty times you asked it, what makes you think I'm going to answer it the next twenty?"

Annie braced herself for another hit, but nothing came. Instead, when Annie looked up, she saw Boris chuckling.

"We're done for now."

Dmitri and Adrik threw Annie back to the concrete floor with a signal from their boss.

"You have spirit in you, I'll give you that. But let me tell you something. It's our job to break that spirit. And we haven't failed yet."

With those words, all three men left and closed the door, leaving Annie in the darkness once again. Once the men were outside, they started to speak in Russia, so Annie scooted as quietly as she could to the door and listened.

"What are we going to do with her boss? She's going to be tough to crack, and by the time we do, it'll be too late to reach our quota in America."

"You're right on one thing. She will be tough to crack. But maybe we can use that to our advantage. Alik doesn't care how we get the money, as long as we get it. So why don't we use her as ransom. Force whatever company she works for to pay her way back."

"That's good boss. But she knows what we look like, and probably a hell of a lot more than she's letting on. If we give her up, she'll probably be able to give enough information to get us caught."

"I know that Dmitri. That's why I don't plan on giving her back at all. Once the money transfer is complete, we can kill her, leave without a trace, and return to business as usual."

"And how are we going to get the money without being traced boss?"

"Let me worry about that. Now go get Anton and send him to my office and then go do your jobs. The sooner that girl cracks the better."

"Yes sir!"

Annie heard footsteps coming closer to the door, so she scooted back as far as possible to where she was. Once the door opened, she heard the clang of two bowls hitting the ground and the door closing again. When she heard the metallic click of the lock, Annie scooted herself closer to the bowls and began chowing down. She honestly didn't know how she was going to get out of this one. The only knew thing she learned was the Boris wasn't the head honcho. There was apparently another man that called all the shots, and if they wanted to stop this whole organization, then he was the one he was going to have to take down.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Auggie, did you get any sleep last night?"

Auggie tore his gaze away from his computer long enough to answer "yes", and then turn right back.

"Auggie, you need to get some sleep. And not some crappy sleep you get from spending the night here. Some real sleep…in your own bed. You aren't going to do Annie any good working half exhausted."

"One sec, Joan. Almost got it…come on…YES!"

Joan thought Auggie was about to jump out of his seat in excitement. "Auggie, would you mind telling me what you found?"

"If I'm right, I think I might have found where they have taken Annie. I have some friends up where Annie was investigating, and they have been working hard, trying to bring down the organization that has been wreaking havoc in their city, the same people that kidnapped Annie. Well, they've been watching some people they think might have been members, following them around and such. One of them is an old MIT student named Anton Baskov. A couple of nights ago, one of the guys followed Baskov and he led them to an old abandoned warehouse that hasn't been occupied in years. When I pulled up the layout of the building, I found that they have a couple of secret underground rooms that nobody knows about anymore. I am almost positive that they are holding Annie down there, in those rooms."

"Stu, give me all the information you can find on Baskov and see if there is any other way into that bunker. Auggie, go home."

"Joan! I-"

"No Auggie. You aren't going to be any help to Annie with no sleep. Go home, get some rest, and come back with a clear head…now,"

Auggie knew that tone. It was Joan's no nonsense tone. Seething, Auggie grabbed his stuff and left the office. Once Auggie got home, he couldn't stay still. He should be out there, helping to get Annie home, and he was going to. If it was the last thing he did, he was going to bring Annie home, because he didn't know what he would do if he lost Annie. She had single handedly changed his life for the better. And no matter how stubborn Auggie might be, he couldn't deny how much he needed Annie Walker in his life. She had always been there for him when he needed someone to talk to, when he need to get away from everything. She was the only person that Auggie has allowed to get as close as she is to him. Auggie doesn't know if he could survive losing someone who had become such a big part of his life. He had a plan, and tomorrow he was going to put it into action.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hey guys! I am so sorry for taking so long to update this story. School has been kicking my butt and I have had no time to do anything and then I had a case of writer's block. I will try and get updates more often but no promises. I also want to thank everyone for the reviews. They make my day and I love reading them. Please R&R. Any reviews or advice you can give will help me out a lot! **


	4. Chapter 4

Annie woke up with a silent scream, sweat covering her face. She took deep breaths trying to calm her racing heart. Somehow nightmares had a way of taking your fears and making them ten times worse. Her fear that she wouldn't be able to get out alive was more vivid than it had ever been. What if she never got to see Danielle? Never got to play with her nieces again? Never got to see Auggie again? There were so many things she never got the chance to tell them.

Annie shook her head, trying to clear her mind of these thoughts. She couldn't think like that. She was going to make it out. She was going to make sure she had the chance to tell them everything she wanted to. Her sister was no longer going to be in the dark about what she did for a living. She was going to make time for her nieces. And she was going to have a serious talk with Auggie, after she figured out what was going on in her head. There are so many things she doesn't know yet, but what she does know is that if…no when she gets back home, things aren't going to be the same.

Annie jumped as the opening of the door shook her out of her thoughts. There was the clank of two bowls falling to the ground, the door closing, and the lock clicking back into place. Annie slowly crawled over to the bowls, made difficult by the new cuts and bruises on her abdomen. When she finally arrived at the bowls, Annie stopped to take a look at the long knife marks scarring her abdomen. Lifting her shirt, she saw long semi-shallow cuts across her stomach, with dried blood practically everywhere. Taking some of her precious water, Annie started to clean the cuts as best she could. The last thing she need was to die of an infection.

Once she was cleaned off, Annie finished up her meal. Today's looked more like actual meat, though not by much. Maybe it's a sign that things might start looking up. Right. Pushing the bowls back towards the door and limping/crawling back to the corner, Annie tried to figure out the Russians plan. Who was Alik? Where was he hiding? Why did he need all the money Boris and his men were bringing in? There was so much that they didn't know. Annie realized that they basically went into this operation completely unprepared. How could there have been such a big piece of the puzzle missing when the seventh floor suits set up the operation? Which brought Annie back to the bigger question, how the hell did they know that she was coming?

Sounds of heavy footsteps stopped Annie's mind from continuing the crazy theories she had been coming up with. When she heard the sound of the locks being unlocked and the door opening, Annie stood up a little straighter with a small grunt of pain. After the blindness of the new light subsided, Annie found herself staring at Boris, Dmitri, and Adrik, all wearing smiles like they were about to do something fun and exciting.

"So, are we ready to be good little spies and give us what we want or are we going to have some more fun today?"

Glaring, Annie determinedly said nothing. At the signal of Borris, Dmitri and Adrik again grabbed Annie, lifting her up and dragging her so that she was face to face with Borris.

"I'm going to take that awful glare as a no. Damn. I was hoping to be done with this today, but oh well."

The glint of the knife being pulled out of Borris's pocket sent a wave of apprehension and fear through Annie's body. Yesterday's experience made Annie want to never even touch another knife. Her eyes followed the knife's path from his pocket, to her stomach. Feeling the knife lifting up her shirt, Annie's stomach clenched.

"Let me ask again. Who do you work for?"

The only answer he received was silence. Faster than Annie would have expected, Borris slashed the knife on top of one of the slashes left from yesterday. Unprepared, Annie cried out in pain, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I told you. It's our jobs to break people. Now once again. Who sent you? A pretty young girl like yourself doesn't end up in our hands for no reason."

With just another glare as his answer, Annie received another slash across on old one. By the time they were done, Annie was covered in sweat and blood and she could hardly stand.

"You have been warned. You give us the silent treatment tomorrow and this will look like a picnic compared to what we will do."

With those parting words, they threw Annie into the corner, went out, threw in the bowls, and shut the door, enveloping Annie in the darkness once again. With a shaky breath, Annie tried to move towards the bowls. Every action hurt, and by the time she reached the bowls, Annie was covered in even more sweat and blood and was more exhausted than she had ever been. Grabbing the water, Annie cleaned her wounds, pouring the water onto them with a hiss. Once that was done, she ate as much as she could, crawled back to her corner, and just about passed out with exhaustion.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Auggie walked in to the DPD more frustrated than ever. How Joan ever thought that he would be able to get a good night's sleep with Annie being held hostage was beyond him. He ended up waking every other hour, worrying over Annie and trying to think of a way to get her home safely. The ONLY reason he was just now getting into work (at seven in the morning) was because he knew that if he came any earlier, Joan would have sent him straight back home.

Once he got to his desk, Auggie logged on and triple checked everything his team and dug up on the Russian group, scanning all the files for some kind of useful information that would help them. They knew were the Russians were staying at right now, but they had no way of finding out which of the underground rooms they were holding Annie hostage. Search every signal room would be tiring and could possibly warn them of their arrival. Grabbing his stress ball, Auggie leaned his head back and started to think of ways that would find her specific room.

Suddenly, Auggie shot back up and began furiously typing onto his computer. After some more clicks and beeps, Auggie ran his fingers over the reader one last time before jumping up and practically running towards Joan's office.

"I know where Annie is being kept!"

With eyebrows raised, Joan put her pen down and looked up at Auggie.

"Are you sure? We can't send an extraction team unless you're completely sure. It might tip them off that we're coming."

"Positive. I tracked her phone's last known GPS coordinates. We had assumed that it had been destroyed at the time of the explosion because of the lost connection. Seems as though it stayed on her somehow and was still emitting her GPS signal. The Russians probably took it from her and destroyed it, but now before they took her down into one of the underground rooms. Her GPS signal shows us exactly which room they were in."

"And you're positive?" With one sharp nod from Auggie, Joan also nodded her head, "Alright then, I'll set up the extraction. The team should be leaving in less than an hour."

"Thank you."

With that, Auggie went to his desk, packed up, and headed home. As soon as he arrived home, Auggie began to pack his suitcase, called the airlines for the first ticket to Moscow, informed his superintendent that he would be gone for a couple of days, and called a taxi to drive him to the airport. He was determined to be there whenever Annie got out of that hell hole. Sure she had been in dangerous situations before; it was part of the job. But never had she been captured and tortured like this, and from what Auggie read on their files, he wasn't sure he wanted to know what they did to her.

The plane ride was one of the longest plane rides in Auggie's life. Once he arrived in Moscow, Auggie, after being led to the front to the awaiting cab, headed towards the center of operations for the extraction, having extracted the information from Stu. Normally they would just communicate to the agents from base. But because of the type of operations the Russians were running, they agency had no idea how many, if any, other hostages were being kept.

During the ride, Auggie called Joan and informed her of his whereabouts. Joan, while still pissed that Auggie went to Moscow without a word, gave him permission (after much argument), to be at the command center to help when he could and to be there for whenever they rescued Annie. When they arrived, an Agent Luis guided Auggie towards the command center where they set him up with a headset so that he would be able to tell them any information they acquired back at Langley.

Impatiently, Auggie waited for the extraction team to get into their positions. They were going to finally rescue Annie from these guys and as much as he wanted to beat the living hell out of the guys that did this, he knew that Annie needed him more. Having no idea what had happened to her in the past couple of days, Auggie expected the worst. After what felt like forever, the team announced that they were in position and were waiting for the all clear. Taking a deep breath, Auggie asked if Stu was ready at Langley, and then gave the all clear. They were so close, and if Auggie had to go in himself, Annie was going to get out alive, one way or another.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ya. I know. I am a horrible person for not updating in I don't know how long. I could give you a bunch of excuses but I don't think yall want to here 'em. Just know my life is pretty hectic, less now so since finals are FINALLY over, BUT I'm going to try and update more. I finally have a more concrete idea of where the story is going to go, so yay! I must apologize for any grammer or spelling mistakes, it is late and I am extremely tired as well as sleep deprived. Hope yall enjoy! As usual any advice or comment would be appreciated and extremely helpful. Thanks to all who have reviewed and just to all who have taken the time to read my story :) Sorry for the long author's note!**


	5. Chapter 5

Annie woke up with a jolt, sending waves of pain through her body. Trying to calm her racing heart, Annie took deep, slow breaths. Slowly the loud beating faded and she could hear yelling and objects falling in the other room. Ignoring the pain, Annie crawled over to the door to listen in on the Russians, hearing a new voice she hadn't heard before.

"I came here expecting everything to be packed and ready to leave this place. Instead, I find one of my biggest headquarters blown up, some agency on us, and a girl sitting in my dungeon! EXPLAIN!"

"Si..Sir. We had to take the girl in. She was the spy. We're trying to discover which agency is on us. We didn't know how close they were, so we had to blow up headquarters, but we have all of our data. We would have been ready, but the girl won't crack. We-"

"Then do something about it! We cannot have our plans pushed back. I have been working on this for too long to let some blonde headed bimbo be the reason it falls apart! Be ready by tomorrow, or there will be DIRE consequences. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-Yes sir!"

"Good. I'll be back by noon, tomorrow. Be ready."

With that, Annie heard loud footsteps, a door opening and slamming shut, and then fast pacing. So that was Alik. He did not sound like the kind of guy Annie wanted to meet. She learned basically nothing from the conversation she had overheard, except that she had to escape from this place by tomorrow, noon. She didn't know much about this Alik guy, but she was pretty sure that it would not bode well for her if she was still there tomorrow. Planning her escape, Annie decided that escaping at night would probably be the best option. She would not be able to see well, but if she waited until late at night, she figured the guards would be exhausted and she would have a better chance of escaping. She would be fine out in the city; Annie just had to get out of this place beforehand.

Having somewhat of an idea of what she was going to do, Annie rested as much as she could, eating everything they gave her, and enduring the many interrogations she had during the day. These were particularly brutal, seeing as they now had a time limit. Along with both the knife and the physical abuse, Boris had a tub full of icy cold water brought, which Dmitri was having way too much fun with in Annie's opinion. After one, particularly long dunking in the water, Annie was brought back up coughing and spluttering, trying to get air into her aching lungs. Once the water cleared, she was face to face with the cold, dark eyes of Boris.

"You might want to answer us. Our boss is coming tomorrow, and trust me…you would rather face us, then go with him any day."

"I actually don't want to talk to any of y'all, but I don't suppose that's an option, is it?"

Annie received a slap across the face, more painful due to the coldness from the water.

"Insolent girl. You have some nerve trying to defy us. I promise you, that is going to get you nowhere. Now, last time, who are you working for? What were you doing wandering around our headquarters? What do you know?"

Annie said nothing, bracing herself for the next blow she was sure to come…except it never came. Looking up, she saw Boris chuckling.

"If that is how you want it, so be it. The boss can be mad all he wants. He won't do anything to me, I'm his right-hand man. It's you that's going to receive the brunt of his anger, and you will be wishing you listened to me."

With those final words, Boris and his henchmen left, slamming the door shut with a resounding bang. Annie spent the rest of the time resting, tending to her wounds and letting her body rest as much as she could. That night was going to be rough, and she needed as much rest as she could get.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

When all had been quiet for what Annie figured to be a good hour, she started to get up, wincing at the sharp pain she felt in her ankle. At random intervals, Annie had been getting up and attempting to walk on her ankle. While excruciatingly painful at first, Annie had now become more used to it, now able to walk and do a sort of hobble-jog thing. This was probably terrible for her ankle, but as long as Annie escaped from this place, she didn't care.

The next part of the plan was probably the dumbest part, but was the only way she could think of to get the guards to open the door. Grabbing one of the metal bowls from the ground, Annie made her way to the door and started to bang on it.

"HELLO! Somebody! Please! I'm ready to talk…I don't want to stay here anymore! Somebody just open this damn-"

Suddenly, with a loud whoosh, the door opened. Thankfully, the lights were dimmed due to the time. Doing a quick scan, Annie saw only two guards standing in the room. She figured that there were more guarding the entrances, but if she could get past these two, then the rest of the guards would be easy.

As one of the guards walked up, Annie swung the metal bowl as hard as she could at his head. Not expecting it, the guard went down without a fight. Rushing out of the dungeon as fast as she could, so not as to get locked in, Annie now found herself face to face with the second guard.

Though shocked that their prisoner had just gotten out of her prison, he looked ready to fight. Glancing down at the table, Annie grabbed the glass of water sitting there and threw it up at the guards face. Surprised, the guard took a wild lunge towards Annie, which she barely dodged having expected it. Turning around quicker than she thought, the guard grabbed and twisted her wrist, making her drop the raised metal bowl.

Breaking the contact, Annie took a step back, preparing herself for a fight. That's when she saw the guard brought out his gun, hiding underneath the giant jacket he wore. Before the guard could bring the gun up to aim, Annie lunged, crying out in pain from her ankle but successfully tackling him to the guard, sending the gun flying. Trying to get up to grab the gun, Annie suddenly found herself on the ground, her hand inches from the gun. Sensing the guard right behind her, Annie lunged once more towards the gun. This time her hand made contact and twisting herself as fast as she could, Annie shot the guard.

Annie froze in place for a couple of seconds. The guard had landed with a resounding thud next to her and she was trying to calm her racing heart. Even after being at the agency for a couple of years, she had never had a reason to kill someone. Slowly she got up, reminding herself that she wasn't in the clear yet. Grabbing the gun and a loan jacket hanging on the back of one of the chairs, Annie slipped out of the room, following the tunnels where they led, hoping beyond hope that she would be able to leave at last.

Annie soon realized that they were farther underground than she had believed. The tunnel system she was in seemed to never end. She had come across many different crossways, always choosing the path that seemed to head towards the surface. Annie hoped that she would find the exit soon. Her ankle was in more pain than she had ever been in and the rest of her body hurt almost as bad.

After about ten minutes, Annie heard voices and stopped suddenly. Walking slower, Annie continued to follow the path forward and soon found herself face to face with a giant door. Listening to the voices, Annie concluded that there were two more guards guarding that door. Going up to the door, she realized she either attacked them, or waited until they found her. Taking one more deep breath, Annie walked up to the door and banged on it once. Holding onto the handle, Annie waited. As soon as the door started to open, Annie pulled the door back a little and then pushed it out with as much force as she could muster, knocking the guard flat on his back.

The other guard then grabbed Annie and threw her onto the icy cold ground. Using her good leg, Annie swung it out and knocked this guard to the ground. The first guard then started to get up, reaching for his gun that had fallen and aimed for Annie. Aiming her gun, Annie shot and hit the man win the leg. Quickly getting up, Annie kept the gun aimed at the guards head and kicked his gun out of the way. The second guard then tackled Annie back to the ground and they ended up wrestling on the ground, both trying to gain the advantage.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The noise from the fight not only alerted the other guards guarding the rest of the entrances, it also alerted the extraction team that had been set up a couple hundred feet away. Hearing the gunshot, Auggie immediately started giving commands, hoping that they Annie hadn't been shot.

"All teams are go! I repeat all teams are go! Be careful though, there may be other guards coming from the other entrances. Stay alert and go get Annie!"

As it turned out, the teams came just in time. Annie, being in the state she was in, was about out of energy and the guard could sense it. Gaining the upper hand, the guard landed one solid punch to the side of Annie's face, knocking her unconscious. As he grabbed the gun to shoot, the team shot him, killing him instantly. The extraction team had spread up and were capturing the few guards that had stayed once they found out they were outnumbered. Soon the area was deemed clear and Annie was brought back to the camp to receive as much treatment as she could before being sent off to the hospital.

Auggie, as soon as he learned that they had reached Annie, got up and demanded that someone take him to the Medic Center right away. Right away one of the other techies tried to tell him that he was still needed. Auggie cut him off with a glare so powerful, the techie was left stuttering before he stopped talking altogether. They had plenty of people to handle the clean-up. He wasn't supposed to be there anyways. The only thing Auggie cared about now was being by Annie's side and seeing for himself (figuratively speaking of course) that Annie was indeed out of danger.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Amazing, I know. I actually updated! I apologize for any mistakes, I am tired and it is late. I promise that that the next chapter will defintitly have more Auggie, because this one sorely lacked him. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or has read this story and thank you to everyone who has favorited and alerted this story! Yall are the reason I set myself to writing this chapter! Again, feel free to leave a reveiw if you feel like it (because I know sometimes you just don't feel like it) with any advice or comments you may have. They help me as an author and inspire me to write more! Alrighty, I'm going to bed, night now :)**


	6. Chapter 6

Once Auggie arrived at the Medic Center, he went straight to the front desk, thanked the man that brought him here, and turned towards the nurse manning the desk. Fear and worry were coursing through him, and Auggie couldn't ask his question fast enough. He wanted no, needed to make sure that Annie was going to be ok.

"Has Annie Walker arrived here yet?"

"Wait one second please. I'll go see if they have brought her in. I'll be back as soon as I find out."

Auggie heard the sound of the chair being pushed back and then quick, hurried footsteps go away from him. Though he was glad that she was checking herself and not waiting for another nurse or doctor to come, Auggie was to jumpy and worried to have much patience. The few minutes it took for the nurse to go check felt like hours. Auggie felt like pacing, but not knowing his surroundings, he took to clenching and unclenching his fists. When the nurse finally came back, Auggie took a deep breath to try to calm his heart and towards the voice of the nurse.

"Annie arrived a few minutes ago. The doctors are checking out her injuries. She doesn't seem to have any life threatening injuries but her ankle looks pretty bad. The moment I find out any other information I will be sure to inform you. Would you like me to take you to the waiting room?"

Auggie took another deep breath. Annie wasn't in any life threatening danger. She wasn't going to leave him, at least not anytime soon, especially if he had anything to do about.

"Yes. Thank you, for everything."

"No problem."

Auggie felt the nurse touch his arm. He took her elbow and allowed her to take him to the nearest chair. Once she left, Auggie leaned back and closed his eyes. He hated waiting rooms. Time seemed to move twenty times slower when you were in them. All he wanted to do was to check on Annie and make sure she really was alright. Since that wasn't possible anytime soon, Auggie lay down on the chairs and closed his eyes. If anything was going to make this time go by faster, it was sleeping.

About two hours later, Auggie was woken up by the same nurse that had led him to the room. Immediately, once he remembered where he was and why, Auggie turned towards the nurse.

"Is everything alright? What happened?"

The nurse placed a calming hand on his arm and said, "Her ankle was in pretty bad shape. I believe they said that she tore both some ligaments and tendons as well as fracturing the bone. They are taking her in to repair her ankle. That was the worse injury; however, she does have many lacerations on her abdomen and some extensive bruising. She will live and should be out of surgery in a couple of hours."

"Thank you for telling me. Would you mind getting me the moment I am allowed to go see her?"

"Of course."

Once the nurse left, Auggie felt rage taking over his body. How could somebody do that to Annie, to anybody for that matter? Just what did they do to her? At that moment, Auggie swore to himself that he would do whatever it took to take these guys down. Nobody would be able to do this to Annie and get away with it. He would get his revenge and make sure that these guys couldn't do this to anyone ever again. Taking a deep breath, Auggie reminded himself that right now, he couldn't do anything. Lying back down, Auggie closed his eyes.

Once again, Auggie was woken up by the gentle touch of the front desk nurse. Once he sat up, he turned towards the nurse and opened his mouth to speak. However the nurse beat him to it.

"Annie is out of surgery. It went well and they just finished putting her into her room. I take it you want me take you to her?"

"Yes, thank you," Auggie said as he got up and took the nurse's elbow.

When they had arrived at Annie's room, Auggie heard the door open and he was lead to the chair right next to Annie's bed. He thanked the nurse and heard her leave and shut the door. Sitting down, Auggie heard the beeps of the different machines that she was attached to.

A small hand grabbing his shook him out of his mind. "Annie?" Auggie said hesitantly.

"Hey Auggie," Annie said in a soft, coarse voice.

When Annie had woken up, the first thing she had noticed was the slow constant beeping of a machine. She had slowly tried to open her eyes and then quickly shut them due to the harsh, bright light that had invaded her eyes. . As her mind began to clear, she had noticed the all too familiar feeling of a needle in her arm and a heavy weight surrounding her ankle. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Auggie sitting down in the chair next to her in deep thought.

When Auggie heard Annie's voice, harsh though it had sounded, a huge smile took over his face. He could almost feel the weight of worry be lifted off his shoulders.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Auggie asked.

"Tired and sore. What are you doing here Auggie? What happened? Last thing I remember was fighting some guy and then it's blank."

Auggie sighed. He didn't really want to talk about what had happened just yet. It was still too fresh in his mind, the worry, the anxiety. But he knew she would ask and, just like him, wouldn't stop until she received some answers.

"I was at headquarters, helping to lead the rescue team sent to get you. I had some friends already looking into the group that kidnapped you and we found their headquarters. We were trying to find out which underground room you were in when we heard gunshots. I sent the team in, found you, and brought you here."

"What happened to Boris and his people?"

"Most of the guards and Boris escaped. On a positive note, they left all of their notes and supplies back at their base. We should be able to track them all."

At hearing that they had escaped, Auggie could feel Annie's muscles tighten in anger. He slowly rubbed his thumb over her knuckles in an attempt to calm her down. After a few moments, he heard Annie take a deep breath and felt her body start to relax again.

"How bad am I hurt?"

"Your ankle is pretty messed up. You tore up the muscles and broke the bone. They took you in for surgery when you got here. Besides that you have some pretty bad cuts and bruises but they said you would heal."

Annie sighed. She wanted to take down the guys that did this to her, but she knew that because of her ankle she would not be going anywhere anytime soon. She started to think about what had happened in there, remembering the promises she had made to make some changes in her life if she got out. Looking at Auggie, she could see the dark circles under his eyes. Annie knew that he would do almost anything for her, but she felt horrible that she was the cause of his worry.

"What are you thinking about?" Auggie asked, startling Annie out of her thoughts. She knew what she wanted to say, but wasn't quite sure how. Soon, she told herself. After we get out of this hospital and back home, we're talking.

"It just bugs me that they got away and that I can't do anything about it."

"Hey, we'll get them. I promise. But in the meantime, you are going to have to relax and take it easy until that ankle of yours heals up."

"It's kind of hard to relax knowing that they are out there, free."

"You know, some people, as crazy as this may sound, actually like to take a vacation once in an awhile."

"I didn't exactly plan this Auggie."

"True. But you have to take the time off so you might as well as enjoy it, right?"

"I guess…"

"Come on, think about it. Sitting back, with a nice cold beer in your hands, not having to worry about anything-"

"And having you wait on me hand and foot? You know, this vacation thing is sounding better by the second." Annie grinned.

"Whoever said anything about being your servant?"

"No one, but I always wanted a butler. I wouldn't have to do anything except ring a bell."

"Me, a butler. Are you joking?"

"You're right. Your hair is much too shaggy to be a butler. I guess I'll have to do without."

"I think you'll survive."

As they both started to laugh, they heard a knock and then the sound of the door opening. Looking up, Annie saw a man in his thirties holding a clipboard and writing something down.

"Hello."

"Hello, I am Dr. Johnston, and I'll be your doctor until I deem you safe enough to travel back to the United States."

"You mean I can't go home yet?"

"I'm sorry, but it is extremely unsafe with your ankle in the condition it is in."

Auggie could feel Annie sink deeper into the hospital bed. He knew that was not what she wanted to her. She hated hospitals almost as much as he did. Auggie squeezed her hand to show his support and has glad when he felt her squeeze back.

"So how are you feeling right now?"

"Tired and a little sore. When do you think I will be able to leave?"

"That is to be expected. I do not know quite yet. I will have to see how your ankle is doing. You seem to be doing ok right now, but if you need anything or start to feel pain, please don't hesitate to hit the call button. Is there anything you might need before I leave?"

"No, thank you though."

"No thanks necessary, it's my job. I will see you in the morning then to check up on you and to give you your medicine."

"Alright. Thank you."

Hearing the door shut, Annie sighed and closed her eyes. She was already exhausted and she hadn't even been up that long. Slowly, Annie drifted off to sleep, giving into her exhaustion and the soothing effects of Auggie's hand.

Once he was sure Annie was asleep, Auggie got up, kissed her forehead, and made his way to the couch that was against the wall. Knowing that they had put a blanket and a pillow on the small end table, Auggie grabbed them and made a makeshift bed on the couch. Before settling down himself and going to sleep, Auggie took one last deep breath. Annie was ok. She was safe and out of harm's way and he was going to do everything he could to be there for her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hello again everybody! I know I haven't updated in a little over a month and I apologize. School is killing me with essays and tests. I think the teachers are competing on who gives out the most homework...but anyways. Here is another chapter. I am sorry if it is not as well written, but I lost where the story was going to go. But I reread some of my reviews and it made me want to post another chapter. So instead of math homework, I did this...much more enjoyable :) Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, and/or favorited this story. I love all of yall! Yall make me want to work at this story and I appreciate it so much! I hope yall enjoyed the chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

The next couple of days were almost unbearable for Annie. The only thing that helped her get through them was Auggie. Auggie had been amazing. He was patient and clam and helped Annie get through the long days of being poked and prodded and not doing anything.

The day finally came when the doctor told them that Annie could go home the next day. Auggie had never seen someone so anxious to get home.

"Your swelling has gone down and everything else looks good. I want to do one last check-up and then you should be set. I will give you the number of the doctor that I would like you to go to when you go back to the states."

Grinning wildly, Annie asked, "Are you serious?"

With a nod from the doctor, Annie's smile grew even bigger. She felt like jumping up and down. Looking over at Auggie, Annie saw that he was also smiling.

"Thank you so much, for everything!"

With another nod, Dr. Johnston left the room, leaving Auggie and Annie by themselves. Annie couldn't have been happier. She had always hated hospitals, but every time she came out of one, it just solidified her hatred.

"Ready to get out of here Ms. Walker?" Auggie asked with a smirk.

"Hell ya. I feel like I'm in a prison."

"Are you sure? I figured you'd want to stay here a couple more days, enjoy the scenery."

"Don't even say that. You'll jinx us and the travel gods will make sure we stay here even longer."

"Travel gods? A little anxious there, are we?"

"I'm just ready to go home…Oh God. How am I supposed to explain this to Danielle?"

"I thought she knew that you were in the agency?"

"She does. It doesn't mean that I want to tell her everything that happens to me on the job. She's strong but I would rather not put her through this and make her worry even more."

"I see…but you have to tell her something. She's going to know something's up when she sees you."

"I know, I know. I'm at least going to have to explain why I can't come over."

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. As much as they wanted to go home, they knew they were both going to have to deal with the problems that awaited them, least of all Joan. Annie will have to go through psych evaluations before she's cleared for field work again. Auggie had it worse. He was going to have to face an angry Joan for leaving. As much as Auggie dreaded to face Joan, he would do it a hundred times over if it meant he was able to see Annie alive again. He glanced back up at Annie, who looked lost in thought as well, no doubt thinking of how to deal with Danielle. He wished he could help her, but he never had to deal with a situation like this before. Sure, Auggie had to deal with his brother, but he didn't have to come home, beaten up, and try to explain what happened.

Auggie grabbed Annie's hand and gave it a light squeeze. "It'll be alright. Everything is going to work itself out."

Annie sighed, "Everyone always says that, but I have a feeling this time is going to be different. I just got Danielle to talk to me again and then this happens. This isn't something I can exactly hide or play down."

"I know. It might take a while, but she'll slowly accept that its part of your life now. It will be like having a police officer as a husband. Every day they put their lives on the line to protect us, much like we do."

"…yeah. I just would rather her not see me like this, you know?"

Letting the exhaustion catch up with her, Annie slumped back into the pillows and was soon asleep. Auggie listened until he heard her breathing mellow out before he gave her hand one last squeeze, got up, and found his way back to his makeshift bed. Tomorrow was going to be another long day.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Getting on a plane is a lot harder with a messed up ankle, as Annie figured out. With taking five minutes climbing the stairs and hitting her ankle on the side of the seats (multiple times), Annie was frustrated and in pain before she even sat down. Auggie was right behind her and after putting his carryon above their seats, he sat down next to her with a sigh.

"I don't remember plane rides ever being so complicated."

"You're telling me. At least this is a company plane. I don't think I could handle other people right now."

"Well whether it was for you or to avoid the press we'll never know. Let's enjoy the upgrade while we can."

Heading towards their seats, Auggie and Annie sat down and started to settle down for the long plane ride home. Getting comfortable was harder than Annie expected. Finally, after a couple minutes of squirming and a few amused looks from Auggie, Annie was comfortable. As she settled, Annie thought back to what had happened. She could still feel the cool metal of the blade against her abdomen, the harshness of the rope around her wrist. Annie involuntarily shuddered, which of course Auggie noticed.

"Hey, everything alright?" He asked as he turned towards her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Annie replied, hoping he would drop it, which of course, he didn't.

"Annie..."

"I just can't stop thinking about it. I keep thinking about everything that happened to me. What about all of those other people that he tortured? Some of them were kids, Auggie."

"Annie-"

Kids! And he's still out there, probably planning his next attack. And he knew that I worked for the government. Does that mean we have a leak?"

"Annie!"

"And if we do, who is it? Did they want me to get captured? What are we-"

"ANNIE!"

Shocked by the outburst, Annie turned towards Auggie, breathing a little heavily from her ran.

"Annie, stop stressing yourself out about something we can do nothing about. We are on a plane that's flying over the ocean. What do you suppose we do?"

"…"

"Exactly." Turning to face Annie more fully, Auggie grabbed Annie's hands and gave them a squeeze. "Trust me Annie, the guys back home are working on it, and so will I. We're not going to let this guy get away, I promise. But you have to take care of yourself first. Take the time off, let your leg heal, and then we'll deal with this guy. But stressing about it now, especially in the middle of the ocean, is not going to do any good."

Taking a deep breath, Annie leaned into Auggie the best she could, somewhat crossing that infamous line, but needing the comfort.

"I know, it's just hard knowing he's out there. And sitting around doing nothing is not exactly relaxing for me."

"Of course you can't be normal. You know most people enjoy their time off?" Auggie smirked.

Annie huffed and slapped his arm. "I enjoy my time off, thank you! I just don't normally spend it confined to a single room. What am I supposed to do stuck at my safe house, when no one can even visit…damn it."

"What?"

"I just realized my apartment has two flights of stairs with no other way to get to it. How in the world am I supposed to manage that?" Annie ran her hands over her face, wondering what she was going to do.

"Stay with me."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, both of then froze. Auggie couldn't believe he just blurted that out. Sure, he wouldn't mind Annie staying with him, but that didn't mean that Annie was all gung-ho with the idea.

"W-What?"

"Stay. With me. Until you recover or find an easier place to live."

"Uh...thanks Auggie, but I wouldn't want to impose. Lord knows I'm not the easiest person to live with, and my leg being the way it is, is not going to make it any easier."

"Are you sure? I would rather you stay with me than at a hotel and my apartment has an elevator. You wouldn't be imposing. If I had a problem with it, I wouldn't have offered."

"Are you positive?" Annie asked, still looking uncertain. Yes, she would rather stay with Auggie, it's not like she could stay anywhere else, but she didn't want him to feel like he was obligated to help her.

"Positive." Auggie said with a smile.

"You are amazing Auggie. Thank you!" Annie smiled and threw her arms around Auggie, giving him a hug. Though a little taken aback at the sudden movement, Auggie returned the hug with a smile on his face.

"Anytime Annie. What are friends for?"

Annie smiled and then leaned back against Auggie, too comfortable to even think about moving back to their original positions. Auggie was surprised that Annie leaned back, but was not going to complain. He thought there was a chance he was never going to see her again just a few hours ago, he was just happy that she was safe and with him.

About ten minutes later, Auggie could tell that Annie had fallen asleep by the evenness of her breathing. Auggie moved a little, placing his arm around Annie, to get more comfortable. He kept thinking about what he would have lost if they hadn't of rescued Annie when they did. His blood boiled just thinking about the things they did to her. Sometime soon, he was going to have to tell Annie how he felt. Auggie learned fairly quickly that in their line of work, keeping secrets from the ones you trusted could get you hurt, feelings especially. After resolving to tell Annie soon, Auggie feel soon fell asleep, snuggled against Annie and feeling more content and happy then he had in days.

After finally putting the last of her clothes into the dresser, Annie slowly got out of the very much despised wheelchair and hobbled onto the bed and lied down. Who knew she had packed so much stuff? All she had to do was put the stuff up, and that took almost an hour. Of course the wheelchair slowed Annie down a bit, but she wanted to prove (at least to herself) that she wasn't totally dependent on other people.

Once Annie and Auggie had gotten off the plane, all Annie wanted to do was get into a bed and sleep. Seeing as they couldn't even stop by Annie's place because she was incapable of climbing up the stairs at the moment, they went straight to Auggie's apartment. Auggie had helped Annie carry her stuff in, asked if everything was ok, and then left Annie to unpack while he went to get something for dinner.

No matter how hard she tried to listen to Auggie's advice, Annie couldn't stop thinking about the whole incident. She shivered; remember the feel of the cool blade, the menace of Boris's voice, and the helplessness that she felt while trapped. She kept wondering how many others suffered the same fate, or even worse. What would have happened had the rescue team had not shown up in time? The different scenarios continued to play through her mind. She took a deep breath and shook her head, as though that would get rid of the thoughts. She needed to try and listen to Auggie's advice.

Auggie.

Annie remembered waking up feeling better than she had in days, since before the whole taken hostage scene. It had felt great waken up in his arms and had enjoyed just lying there, listening to his even breathing. It had been awhile, even before the kidnapping incident, since she had felt so content with another man. Annie knew that she was going to have to talk to Auggie soon, but with the unexpected new living arrangement, Annie was scare that if it got awkward, or if he didn't feel the same way, they would still have to face each other every day and try to live together. The last thing Annie wanted was to break up their friendship.

Suddenly, a knock on Annie's door brought her out of her mind-rant.

"Annie? Dinner's ready if you're hungry."

"Thanks Augs. Let me just hobble and get into my wheelchair and I'll be out there." Auggie flashed her one of those grins that made everything feel right and her stomach to do backflips. With a nod, Auggie left the room, knowing Annie would want to try and get into her wheelchair by herself.

Annie knew what Auggie was doing, and was extremely grateful. Maybe having the talk while she was here wasn't too bad. If things worked out, it might even become a blessing. Shaking her head before she went on another rant, Annie hobbled herself into her wheelchair and started to wheel herself into the kitchen, with things seeming much brighter than they had a couple of minutes ago.

**A/N: Wow. It has been way too long since I have last updated, and for that I am truly sorry. Life is way to hectic right now that it has been almost impossible for me to right. Family drama, personal issues, and helping friends deal with a couple of things has kept me busy, plus a lot of other stuff. I am going to try and finish at least most of the story before I post again. I'm posting this one so that 1: you actually have some sort of sign that I am alive, 2: so that you know that I will not be updating for awhile until I most likely finish the story 3: because it has been way to long since the last update, and 4: that you know that I have not given up on this story. This is my first story, and as with almost everything, when you first start all the ideas come to you, and then when you run out, its hard to keep it going. But I do enjoy writing and then I will finish this story. I also apologize because I reread my story and it seems kind of weak to me...but I guess that's the whole purpose of me writing, because I like it and it helps me improve. I apologize for this freakishly long AN, and promise that if I post another story, it will be a better experience for all. Thank you for reading and don't forget to R&R!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Heads up. Extremely long AN at the end.**

As Annie started to wheel towards the kitchen, the smell of pasta and breadsticks wafted into the air. Just the smell of the food was heavenly and Annie felt her mouth watering before she even got to the table.

"Oh my God, Auggie. I hope that tastes as good as it smells because it smells delicious!"

Auggie chuckled in reply, "I hope so, but I guess we're about to find out, aren't we?"

Annie laughed. "Yep! Where are the plates and I can help set the table?"

Auggie was about to reply, saying that she didn't need to worry about it, but stopped. He remembered when he had just lost his eyesight and how much he wanted to be independent. While Annie's situation wasn't exactly the same, he knew that Annie valued her independence greatly. So instead he replied,

"They're up here in the cupboard. Let me just get them down and you can set the table while I drain the pasta."

"Alright!" Annie said with a smile, happy she could help.

Hearing the smile in her voice, Auggie knew that he made the right decision. Angering Annie with what happened probably wasn't the best idea right now. A couple of minutes later, Auggie paused. He heard no movement whatsoever in the kitchen.

"Annie?" he called out.

"W-What?" Annie answered, clearly having been shaken out of her thoughts.

"Nothing. It just seemed really quiet, I was wondering what you were doing."

Auggie heard Annie sigh and then the sound of her wheelchair turning around.

"I was just wondering how I was going to get into the seat. The table is too tall for me to eat out of my chair. Just another thing I hate about this stupid chair."

Auggie could hear the frustration in her voice and tried to think of a remedy to this problem.

"Why don't we just eat in the living room? It's not like we haven't beforehand and I'm pretty sure the couch is much more comfortable than my dining room chairs."

"I guess."

"Well don't sound too excited. Come on. The pasta is ready. Why don't you put the plates on the coffee table and I'll meet you there with drinks?"

In reply Annie sighed and gave a soft ok. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful that Auggie was working around her wheelchair problem; she just wished she never had this problem to begin with. She hated that even a simple dinner was becoming more complicated. Annie rolled herself to the plates, grabbed them, and then headed towards the living room.

Auggie grabbed two beers out of the fridge and headed towards the living room, stopping before he got too far so as not to trip over her wheelchair.

"Annie?"

"Right here Aug."

Auggie put the two beers on the edge of the coffee table, felt for Annie's wheelchair and when he found it, pulled her backwards a couple of feet.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Annie exclaimed, unhappy that she was being moved for just "being in the way."

"Hold up one second, Annie. We're going to eat on the couch. I figured it would be easier for you. I was just going to help you get there. That alright?"

"Oh. Ya, sure. Sorry Auggie."

Auggie reached out his arm and when he felt Annie grab it and start to pull herself up, picked her up himself and placed her gently on the couch. Annie huffed in annoyance.

"I thought you were just going to help, not just pluck me anywhere you wanted."

Auggie sighed and sat himself next to Annie. Once he was settled he turned towards he and said,

"Annie. I'm just trying to help. I'm sorry that you got hurt and can't be as independent as you would like, but sometimes that best thing to do is just let the people that care for you, help you. It doesn't mean you're weak or anything. Think of it as taking a break. Before you know it, you'll be kicking butt on a daily basis once again."

Annie knew that Auggie was right. She needed to stop throwing herself a pity party and just accept the fact that she was going to have to lean on some people for the next couple of weeks. And who better than Auggie?

"I know and I'm sorry Auggie. I promise I'll try and stop being such a party pooper. I really am grateful for everything. Forgive me?" Annie asked.

"Nothing to forgive. Ready to eat some dinner because I don't know about you but I am starving!"

Annie laughed and grabbed her plate from the coffee table. Couples of hours later, all of Annie's worries were forgotten, if only for a little while. With great food, some healthy banter, and a terrible movie (that was poorly abused and mocked throughout the evening), Auggie had taken Annie's mind off anything negative.

"Who chose the actors for this movie? I could have done a better accent than that when I was twelve!" said Annie, pointing at the T.V. screen.

"I'm sorry Annie, but not all of us are language experts that can speak fifty languages."

"Excuse me. I don't speak fifty languages thank you very much."

"Uh huh," Auggie said with a smirk. "I'm sorry, what languages can you speak again?"

"Spanish, Russian, Italian, Port-"

"Exactly. Now stop listing them all. You're making me look stupid."

"You're the one that asked." Annie huffed while crossing her arms. "And you do that very well on your own, you don't need my help. Hey!"

Annie smacked Auggie on the arm and rubbed her own arm. "There is no need for violence."

Auggie laughed and turned more fully towards Annie. "That's what you get for insulting me. But now that you bring it up, this party is missing something. Time for tequila."

With that, Auggie got up and started heading towards the kitchen to get to his liquor cabinet. As he is walking away he hears Annie yell, "I don't remember bringing up tequila!"

"And yet I don't hear you complaining, do I?" Auggie yells back.

Annie smiles and leans more into the couch, waiting for Auggie to return. This evening had to be one of the best evenings she's had in a very long time. This is just what she needed after everything she had been through.

Auggie returned, caring the tequila, two shot glasses, a couple of limes, and some salt. Setting it all down on the table, he turns towards Annie with a smile. "Ready?"

Annie laughs and replies, "I'm always ready for some tequila. Bring it."

With that, Auggie reaches over, uncaps that bottle, and pours each of them a shot. Afterwards he hands Annie the shot, a lime, and the salt shaker. Annie licked her hand, sprinkled some salt on it, and then continued in the old fashioned, salt, shot, lime routine.

"Damn Auggie, that's some strong tequila. Your turn!"

The night continued in the same fashion, with plenty of drinking and laughing between them both. After a while, they fell into a comfortable silence. After her third yawn, Annie decided it was time for bed.

"Alright Auggie, I think I'm going to go to bed." Annie asked. Not receiving a response, Annie looked over at Auggie and saw that he was fast asleep. She knew that she needed to wake him up, but Annie couldn't help but stare. She was amazed at how young and calm he looked when he was sleep. It was weird seeing Auggie this way, who was usually so animated. Finally deciding that this may be a little creepy, Annie started to gently shake him.

"Auggie. Auggie, wake up. It's time to go to your own Auggie."

Slowly, Auggie opened his eyes. He was confused for a second and tensed up until he heard Annie's soft voice telling him it was time to go to bed.

"What time is it?" Auggie asked, voice still heavy with sleep.

"I'm not sure, but we can't stay on this couch forever, we would hate ourselves in the morning." Annie replied, while shifting so Auggie could stand.

"Are you calling me old Walker? I'll have you know that I am in top physical condition." Auggie said. While moving so that he was actually sitting up, audible cracks were heard coming from his back.

Annie replied laughing, "Oh yeah, you're not getting old at all."

"Oh shut it, Walker." Auggie said. Getting up, he was about to head towards his bedroom when he heard Annie call out to him,

"Hey Auggie? Think you could move my chair a little closer to the couch so I can get into it. It's about five feet to your right."

"Oh. Ya sure." Auggie said. He felt a little bad. He honestly had forgotten that his best friend had been seriously injured. Finding the wheelchair, Auggie pushed it back and then helped Annie into it.

"Need anything else?"

"Nah, I'm good Auggie. Thanks." Annie said. She proceeded to wheel herself towards the guest bedroom and heard Auggie call out just before she entered,

"Night Annie!"

"Goodnight Auggie." She replied with a smile.

Back in the guest bedroom, Annie completed her nighttime routine and then contemplated how she was going to physically get onto the bed. After hopping off one leg onto the bed (which took more energy than she cared to admit), Annie elevated her ankle with pillows and settled into bed. Not for the first time that night, Annie's thoughts drifted towards Auggie. She could not believe what all Auggie had done for her. Sure, she would have done the same thing in a heartbeat, but there was a difference between knowing he would do it, and him actually doing it. Annie finally admitted to herself that she had feelings for Auggie, and strong ones at that which grew stronger every day. Now the only question is how to handle these feelings. Did Auggie feel the same way? And what if she admitted her feelings and she didn't feel the same way. Annie knew that Auggie wouldn't let it be the end of their friendship but it would definitely make things awkward. Deciding that she definitely wasn't coming up with a solution tonight, Annie decided to try and get some sleep (though she failed miserably).

Back in his room, Auggie was having similar thoughts. Only difference was, was that Auggie was determined to tell Annie how he felt at some point. This was not something he could keep from his best friend because at some point, she would notice that something had changed. At the moment, he was pretty safe from her figuring it out because she would just think that it was him taking care of her. He loved the fact that Annie was actually letting him take care of her, albeit reluctantly on her part. Independence was big for Annie, and the fact that she had given up some of the reigns amazed him. She amazed him. Remembering the reason why Annie needed his help in the first place just made Auggie want to tell her sooner. He could have lost her and she would have never known how he felt. No, he was telling her and soon. The only question left was when.

**A/N: Hey guys. I know I said that I wouldn't be uploading for a while. But I finished this chapter and all of yall's reviews made me want to upload. I am going to try and upload more and since it is summer I should have more time to write (and I am going to try my best to do it, yall deserve more chapters). Now I am about to explain some things about his story (some of it has some life crap in it), so if you don't want to listen to my ramble then just skip to the last section of this AN.**

**First of all, I want to apologize for this chapter. I feel like this writing sucks. But I also think that this whole story is below what I can actually do. I promise that if I write another story, that it will be better. I also want to say that I don't write fluff. I personally think I suck at it but I am going to work on it. It is the reason this chapter is a little bit shorter. I'm much better at everything else. But I guess its a good thing this story isn't all fluff. This was the last real fluffy chapter for a while. In the next couple of chapters, we are going to be seeing other characters and finding out what happened to our good friend Boris. Again, I apologize if this chapter or the last has felt a little...stiff. I will work on it, I promise. Also, someone pointed out that there was a a kind of serious typo on my last chapter, like a skip back or something. I apologize. I am usually too tired to proofread once I finish a chapter, so please bear with me. I also want to say that if yall have any ideas for this story, feel free to leave them in a review or to message me. Nothing is set in stone and I am kind of writing this as I go (which I will NOT be doing in the future). I love hearing what yall think of my story. Now I am having oral surgery tomorrow (oh joy), so since I will be stuck in bed I might be able to update if I'm not too loopy. Just a heads up :) I know this was long, but I just feel like yall have received the short end of the stick and I wanted to apologize and explain. I promise, no more long ANs.**

**Alright, I am done. Please R&R! I love hearing what yall have to say! It truly compels me to write and they make my day! And if yall have any suggestions for the story, feel free to tell me!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Longer AN at the bottom. Enjoy this long awaited chapter! All mistakes are mine!**

* * *

><p>The next week pasted with little to no incidents (although there were a few accidents, one involving a crushed foot, a spaghetti covered wall, and a slightly more colorful language), and while Annie had finally advanced from the wheelchair to crutches, she was still dying to get out and do something productive. At the moment, she was trying to convince Auggie to let her go to work with him the next day.<p>

"Auggie please? I'm going to die if I have to stay in this apartment all by myself!"

"I'm sure it won't be that bad Annie dearest."

"What am I going to do? Stare at your wall all day?" Annie said with a huff.

Auggie sighed. He knew this argument was going to come up eventually.

"You could read, watch a movie, contemplate the meaning of life…lots of things really. Shouldn't you be used to this, with all the waiting you do during missions and whatnot?"

"That's different. I'm bored, but I'm bored for a purpose."

"Then just pretend it's another mission. I'll even pick us up something from our favorite take out on my way home."

"Auggie. If you don't take me tomorrow, then I'll just find another way to get there without you. Wouldn't you rather know that I was safe with you than all by my lonesome?" This last part was said with just enough innocence that Auggie almost laughed, if it wasn't for the fact that he could imagine the puppy dog look she was giving him. And that he knew all too well that Annie would go out without him.

"Fine." Auggie replied with a sigh.

"Thank you Auggie! Thank you!" Annie said happily. The hug that soon followed afterwards almost knocked Auggie over.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't blame me when Joan goes off on you for being there," He replied with a smile.

The next day, both Auggie and Annie walked into the DPD like everything was back to normal, despite the fact they were going twice as slow due to the crutches. Annie left Auggie at his office while on her way towards Joan's office.

"Wish me luck Auggie."

"I think this time you might actually need it."

"Thanks Auggie. Real confidence booster," Annie replied. She was nervous about facing Joan but she could not, not do anything for another day much less another week that the doctor recommended.

Taking a deep breath, Annie knocked twice, waited for Joan's "Come one in." and entered the office only to be met by the steely eyes of her boss.

"Annie. Would you mind explaining what you're doing here instead of at home recuperating?" Joan asked.

Taking a breath, Annie replied, "I wanted to come in and start to do research on Boris and his operations. I-"

"Annie." Joan calmly interrupted. "We have people already looking into them. I want you home, recovering so we can get you back as soon as possible at full capacity."

"I get that. But it's not like I'm going to be doing strenuous activity at my desk working and I still have to do my report so you can learn what I've learned. There is someone higher up on the food chain than Boris. They locked me up and tortured me. I can't just sit here and do nothing while he goes out and tortures others!"

By the end of her rant, Annie was almost shouting. Taking another deep breath, Annie looked up at her boss with fire in her eyes.

Joan saw the determination, and was reminded of herself, not letting anyone get the best of her. She looked at Annie for a moment longer and then made her decision.

"Fine. You can stay here and work. But you will work on what I give you first." Joan put her hand up when it looked like Annie was going to protest. "This is not because I am trying to punish you or keep you away. These are assignments I was going to give you when you came back. These translations are vital to some of our other ops and are needed as soon as possible. I will give you the translations. As soon as you are finished, you may continue your work on Boris. And not one foot out in the field until I say so." Joan said the last part firmly and the look in her eyes told Annie that this was not an order that would be broken.

"Thank you so much Joan. I appreciate you letting me stay here." Annie said turning on her crutches to head out and start working on the translations.

"Annie."

Annie stopped just before she reached the door, "Yes Joan?"

"Don't let this become consuming. We will get him but it may take some time." Joan said and Annie could see the hint of concern in her eyes.

"I won't. Thank you Joan. Really, thank you." Annie replied. She was surprised by the show of concern from Joan. It wasn't that Joan didn't care, Annie knew she did. More than a lot of the other people here at the CIA, she just didn't show it.

Annie crutched towards her desk and checked her email. Going through all of the emails she received Annie reminded herself to never get hurt again. Finally getting through them all, Annie started to work on the translations as quickly as possible.

Half an hour later, Auggie finally made an appearance.

"So I take it you survived Joan. She even let you stay and work, I'm impressed." Auggie said as he leaned against his corner of Annie's desk.

"I'm pretty sure the only reason she let me work was because she needed someone to translate the biggest pile of translations I have ever seen." Annie huffed as she threw done the pen and notepad she had been working off of.

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that you probably looked like you were ready to take down Borris's whole organization single handedly?"

"Maybe…"

"Thought so."

"Auggie! You know why I want to take them down! You know they are going to regroup and then do the same thing all over again and-"

"Annie!"

Annie promptly shut her mouth from the tone of Auggie's voice. When she looked up, she was startled at the emotion she could see in his eyes. Taking a deep breath, Auggie let his hand flow across the desk until it found one of Annie's.

"I know how much you want to catch them but you can't do anything about it when you can barely walk. Take what you can get and just be happy that Joan is letting you work. I'll tell you what. How about after work we go to Allen's and get a drink. On me. You get out of the apartment and I get booze. Sound good?"

Annie took a deep breath and looked up at Auggie's face. Squeezing back she answered, "Yeah, that sounds good Auggie."

"Good." Auggie replied while giving one last squeeze and then hopping off the desk. "I shall be here at seven o'clock sharp and not a minute later. Don't work too hard." And with that, Auggie turned around and headed back to his office.

"Yeah. Later Auggie." Annie said to his retreating back. She had a feeling that something big was going to happen tonight. Whether it was good or bad was yet to be seen.

* * *

><p>"See? Now aren't you glad I suggested the bar?" Auggie asked with a smirk.<p>

"Auggie, this has been the best thing you've suggested since I've gotten back. I needed this." Annie said, grateful. She was glad Auggie suggested they go out to Allen's. Even though all she did was translations, staring at a computer screen for more than eight hours had left Annie with a headache. Now she had all but forgotten about it as she laughed at Auggie's imitation of some of her coworkers.

"Yeah, I know. I could tell. I figured you could use a night out that didn't consist of us sitting on my couch and making fun of movies."

"Thanks Auggie. I'm just not used to being so..helpless. I just want to walk again so I don't have to ask for help every five seconds. And I'm sure you want to have your apartment back."

"Hey now." Auggie replied, his voice noticeably more stern than it had been a few seconds ago.

"One. You will never be helpless. I've had to beg you to let me help you. Helpless is not exactly the word I would use to describe you. Stubborn, yes. Helpless no. Second, don't ever think for a second that I mind you staying at my house. It's been nice having someone there instead of it being so empty. If I didn't want you there, I never would have offered. So stop thinking that I'm ready to get rid of you. You're stuck with me Walker."

Annie looked up at Auggie, shocked once again by the emotion behind Auggie's eyes as he talked. It was the same look he had in his eyes as he did in the office. She could tell that there was something else he wanted to say, but didn't think that Allen's was exactly the best place for a close heart to heart.

"Thanks Auggie. I know that I haven't been exactly easy to live with right now and I just want to thank you. Not many people would be able to handle me living in their house, especially as grouchy as I've been. You truly are amazing."

"Now I just thought that was common knowledge, but it never hurts to be reminded that, I am indeed, amazing. Ow!" Auggie exclaimed while rubbing his arm.

"And so modest to, might I add." Annie said with a smirk.

Auggie chuckled, but then turned slightly serious once more. "But really Annie. It's been no problem that you stay. And I understand completely, I do. But just remember that I am here for you. You don't have to do everything for yourself. You would do the exact thing for me if our positions were reserved, so stop thinking you're a burden and just accept it."

Annie smiled and reached over and grabbed Auggie's hand and gave it a squeeze. She had never been more grateful that Auggie was her best friend.

"Thanks Aug. Now how about we go home. I'm ready to sit down on that couch of yours and make fun of some movies."

"I say what are we waiting for!" Auggie replied as he got up, through down some bills on the table, and pulled Annie from her seat. Inside, Auggie smiled, thinking that he might have actually made progress. True, he still wanted to have "The Talk", but as of right now. He would settle for making sure she was comfortable and happy.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So. Ya. It's been months. And I apologize. Life happened. Don't get me wrong I feel absolutely terrible. I'm sorry if the erratic posting throws you off. I know it throws me off. My life is just so absolutely hectic that I hardly have time to sleep. I apologize. I hope yall can forgive. I promise that if I ever write another story, I will complete it before I post even the first chapter. More enjoyable for yall because it'll have a set time when it gets posted and I don't feel terrible because I can't post at consistent intervals. So again, I apologize. **

**Now, besides all of the guilty crap. I hope yall enjoyed this chapter! I don't review what I wrote, so I apologize for any mistakes. And while I have a very tentative plan of where I'm going, any suggestions if yall have some will be welcomed! And thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and/or favorited! I absolutely love yall. They are usually what motivate me to write. Especially since I have no idea when yall review its like a surprise gift for me when I find them. Alright. I'm done. Review please!**


	10. Chapter 10

The weeks went on and Annie slowly regained the use of her ankle. She was now in a boot, with only about two weeks left until it was removed. Annie no longer needed help getting around and was pretty independent. Yet, she was still living at Auggie's. Annie told herself it was because she still didn't trust herself walking up and down the stairs at her apartment, but she knew that wasn't it. She didn't want to leave Auggie. They were spending more time together than they ever had and Annie loved every minute of it. A small part of her almost didn't want to recover, because then she would have no excuse to stay.

Auggie was in the same boat. He would never wish Annie any kind of pain or harm, but he dreaded the day when Annie would have to go back to her own apartment. He had gotten used to having someone else in the house. Auggie was used to being alone, and usually he loved it. But now he couldn't imagine not coming home to Annie, telling her about her day or listen to her complain about whatever it was that happened at work that day. He didn't want to come home to an empty apartment anymore. Auggie knew he promised himself he would have "The Talk" with Annie, but there was this small part of him that was afraid that Annie would reject him and that fear was enough to make Auggie hesitant.

One day after work, Auggie, Annie and a bunch of people from work headed out to Allen's to celebrate. The week had been a tough one and everyone needed a break. Everyone had just finished a major op, filled with shifty dealers, multiple countries, and one of the most frustrating assets he had ever worked with. Annie had her own frustrations. Joan had continued to give her translation after translation, giving Annie no time at all to do any research over Borris and his organization. While she was getting better at hiding it, the thought of Borris still crossed Annie's mind multiple times a day, and she was determined to find him and bring him down. Needless to say, everyone wanted a couple of hours off the clock.

As they entered the familiar bar, Annie saw that it was surprisingly empty. Not that she was complaining. She looked over at the bartender, the question at her lips when he looked over at her and said, "New bar down the street has its opening night tonight. Everyone is going over there for the discounted beer. They'll be back next week once the weekend sale is over."

Annie nodded her head, turned around, and led Auggie to the table where Stu, Greg, and a couple others of their coworkers were sitting. As they approached, they heard Stu's signature laugh. As they sat down, Annie asked, "Hey guys. What'd we miss?"

"Oh, nothing. Greg was just telling us about his interesting experience at that bar off of 17th. Funniest damn thing I've heard this week," replied Stu, tears in his eyes from laughing so hard.

"Hey! That was a traumatizing experience. I'm never letting my girlfriend drag me there again." Greg said with a slight shiver.

"I'm still in shock that you have a girlfriend. Props." Auggie said with a smirk.

"At least I have one. Who all here actually has someone? Oh wait, only me? That's what I thought." Greg replied, armed with his own smirk.

"You're right. We should all bow down to the almighty Greg. Please. Teach us your ways. Hey!" Annie yelped as a French fry was thrown and everyone else laughed.

The rest of the night was spent with lots of laughter and lots of beer. When everyone decided to head out, Auggie and Annie hailed a cab and climbed in, with a good amount of difficulty. When they got home, Annie and Auggie headed to the couch, still not tired enough to go to sleep, hitting many things along the way.

"Remind me to never let you get drunk again when my safety depends on whether or not you can lead me to my couch." Auggie said, as he rubbed his bruised shins.

"Oh come on. I wasn't that bad." Annie replied as she plopped herself down next to Auggie on the couch.

"I'm pretty sure I can count at least five different things you ran us into from the cab to this lovely couch."

"You're alive aren't you?"

"At the expense of my poor shins. I'm pretty sure if you look, my shins are a pretty mixture of purple and black."

Annie looked over at Auggie in exasperation. "Stop being a big baby. We made it to the couch. What do you want to do? Because I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to go to sleep quite yet."

"Movie?" Auggie replied. "Because you say that now, but I'm pretty in about thirty minutes, we'll both be passed out.

"Sure. What do you want to watch?" Annie asked, getting up to head over to Auggie's movie collection. Slowly and carefully.

"Something that requires minimal thinking."

"One random action movie, coming up!" Annie replied, grabbing _The Expendables_ and putting it in. Heading back, Annie grabbed the blanket that sat on top of the couch, threw it over both her and Auggie, and settled in to watch the movie. As Auggie predicted, both of them were asleep within thirty minutes.

* * *

><p>As Auggie was slowly waking up, the first thing he noticed was that there was something warm on half his body. As he became more aware of his surroundings, Auggie discovered that apparently he and Annie fell asleep on the couch, and somehow on each other, while watching the movie. Auggie could tell that Annie had an arm and a leg thrown over Auggie while using his chest as a pillow. He felt her blonde hair on his arm. Auggie wanted to run his hand through the, he assumed, soft curls, but knew that he couldn't. Just as Auggie was contemplating how to move without waking her up, Annie shifted, nuzzling into his chest, and then suddenly stiffened. He could only assume that Annie realized where she was. Soon enough, Annie relaxed again and slowly shifted her head up and smiled when she saw Auggie smiling down at her.<p>

"Morning Aug," Annie said with a soft smile.

"Good morning. I guess we fell asleep in between that apparently life changing movie you made us watch last night."

"Don't hate on the movie just because someone couldn't stay awake." Annie replied with a poke to his chest.

"I'll hate on it all I want. You fell asleep too. Your argument is invalid." Auggie said with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah. What time is it anyways?" Annie asked, laying her head back down.

"That's a good question. I was going to check but then I realized that there's this blonde woman on top of me," Auggie replied, who like Annie, laid his head back down. "But since neither of our alarms have gone off, I'd say were good for a couple of more minutes."

"You're a comfy pillow, my friend. Get used to it." Annie said, emphasizing that statement by moving around and getting more comfortable. "And in that case, I'm just going to stay here for a little while longer."

Silence settled again as both Auggie and Annie got lost in their thoughts. Auggie couldn't believe that Annie was still using him as a human pillow. He thought for sure that the moment she woke up, she would apologize and get off him as soon as possible. Instead, she talked to him as if they woke up like this every morning. "I wish we woke up like this every morning," thought Auggie.

Annie was content. While she almost had a freak out when she had woken up, Annie was glad that she talked herself out of bolting from the safe cocoon of Auggie's arms. And he didn't tell her to get off of him during their conversation so Annie could only assume that he didn't mind. She knew that she wanted this, with Auggie. She had woken up by herself so many times, wishing that there was somebody there with her. And now that she has had a taste of what it feels like, Annie doesn't want to give it up. And sometimes, Annie gets the feeling that Auggie wants more too. Annie has just been too scared of bringing the matter up, not wanting to ruin their friendship.

Soon enough, the both of their alarms went off, and begrudgingly Annie and Auggie got off the couch and started to get ready for work. Annie headed towards the shower while Auggie headed towards the kitchen to get the coffee started. Forty-five minutes later, Annie and Auggie were getting ready to leave, hoping to get to work before the rush. As they were heading out the door, Auggie made a snap decision and grabbed Annie's arm.

"Annie, wait a second."

Confused, Annie stopped walking and turned back towards Auggie. "Yeah. What's up Auggie?"

Taking a deep breath, Auggie started, "Look. I feel like we've been dancing around this for the last couple of weeks. Which have been amazing by the way, but I just…how would you feel about going on a date? With me? Tonight after work?"

Annie stared for a second, taking in Auggie's words. She couldn't believe that he was asking her on a date. She'd been working up the courage to do it herself, but it looked like Auggie beat her to it.

Mistaking the prolonged silence as reaction, Auggie took a step back. "Never mind. Forget I said anything. I'm sorry-"

"Auggie! Shut up. I'd love to go on a date with you." Annie said with a smile, grabbing Auggie's arms and pulling him back.

Once Auggie comprehended that she did, indeed say, a full on Auggie smile appeared on his face. "Great. Be ready by 8?"

"You betcha." Annie replied. Leaning up, she kissed Auggie on the cheek. "Now can we head off to work before it's impossible to catch a cab?"

"Yeah. Let's go. Sooner we get there, sooner we get out." Auggie said, the smile never leaving his face.

Neither of them knew that by noon that day, they would have a much bigger problem on their hands, something that could possibly tear them apart. For good.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: What is this? I updated? Yes. Yes I did. I am going to apologize for this chapter. I feel that it is one of my worst chapters. But I honestly needed to get back to the action and I had no idea how to transition that. I guess that's something I'll learn if I write another story. And I personally think I suck at writing the relationship part. I can see it in my head, but putting it down on paper is a whole other story. So I apologize for the suckish chapter. But we're getting closer to the climax of the story! Next chapter shall be better. A big THANK YOU to everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed my story! Yall have no idea how much it means. Alright, I'm done. Thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

The day started out as any normal day does. At least any normal day for Annie and Auggie. There was plenty of bickering as they argued over whether they should pick up so donuts or not, and then on exactly _which_ donut shop had the best donuts. They both smiled and laughed and were anxious to get the day over with so that they could head out on their date. But apparently fate had other plans.

As Auggie and Annie were leaving Lucy's Home Baked Donut Shop, two black vans with identical license plates came hurdling out of nowhere. They screeched to a halt in front of and beside the duo and before Annie and Auggie could assess the situation, men popped out from the back of both vehicles, guns in hand.

"Annie! What's going on? Who's ou-" Auggie started. A deep Russian voice interrupted him.

"Silence!" he shouted. "This does not concern you, invalid. Be quiet and let us take care of business."

Annie felt red hot anger at the word invalid, because she knew Auggie was anything but. As much as she wanted to scream and fight these people, she knew she couldn't. They were surrounded, and the odds were not in their favor.

"We need the blonde girl. You have caused problems for us Annie. It is time that we teach you what happens when little girls mess with things they should not."

"_Seize her!_" the man shouted in Russian. At once, two arms surged out and grabbed Annie while at the same time; a third went to throw Auggie to the ground. The moment Auggie felt the hand grip his arm, Auggie grabbed the man and flipped him onto the ground.

Annie was trying her best to slip from the Russians' grasp, injuring one of her assailants. Auggie turned towards the noise of the fight when…

"That is enough! You will cease fighting or I will shoot you both know and face the consequences of not bringing the girl back. It is up to you."

At once, both Auggie and Annie stopped resisting; still trying to figure a way out of the struggle they were in.

"Don't shoot. I'll come if you let him go unharmed." Annie finally said, not seeing a way out of this without risking their lives.

Hearing this, Auggie turned towards Annie. "Annie, no! I'm not letting you leave with them! You don't know what-"

"Auggie, it's the only way that neither of us will get hurt. I'll be ok." Annie said steel in her voice. She knew what would most likely happen whenever these men brought her back to their base. But she also knew that letting them take her while leaving Auggie gave them a much better chance of the agency finding her. If they took both, then it would be at least an hour before anyone even questioned why both Annie and Auggie weren't at work.

"Annie..."

"Auggie. It's the only thing we can do right now."

"Alright. Enough of this talk. Drop the guy. It's not like he knows what we look like anyways. Let's go."

The next thing Auggie knew was that he was falling towards the ground fast. It was nerve-racking to hear them throw Annie into the back of the van like she was trash.

"Annie!" Auggie screamed. "I will find you and bring you back! I promise."

One of the Russian thugs laughed. "Well that is sweet. He wants to save her when he can't even fend for himself."

Auggie heard Annie give a smart-ass remark and the next thing he heard was a loud slap and a cry of pain. A wave of anger like none he'd ever known surged inside of him when he heard the cry of pain from Annie. He wanted nothing more than to break every bone in these thugs' bodies, and it was frustrating that he was stuck on the ground. The doors slammed shut and Auggie heard the screeching of the tires as both of the vans drove off.

* * *

><p>It was dark, cold, and wet. That was all the observations Annie could make from her spot on the wall where she was chained. She guessed they learned their lesson about letting her roam free inside her lovely cell. She could hear her captures talking in Russian on the other side of the wall, but it was too muffled for her to understand. Annie had already tried tugging on her restraints so that she could see just how screwed she was. Pretty screwed if the lack of movement counted for anything. Damn. And life was just started to get pretty great.<p>

It's not that she doubted Auggie's skills. She was sure that they would find her eventually. But she had no idea how long these pissed off Russians planned on keeping her alive. These Russians tortured her pretty bad as it was and that was just for information. Annie couldn't imagine what they were like when they wanted information _and_ revenge. It was a dangerous combination.

By the end of the next hour, Annie had lost all feeling in her arms and legs. She spent the time trying to learn the layout of her cell. She was trying not to think about what was likely to happen. She didn't want to think about Auggie and what she might lose. She wanted to try and do something productive. Even if that was just estimating that the room was about five strides wide by seven strides long.

Twenty minutes later, Annie heard multiple locks click, signaling that they were being opened. She was then greeted by the sight of a muscular man that she had never seen before. His arms were covered with tattoos and there were scars covering his body. He had a hard glint in his eye that told of a hard life. When he spoke, he spoke with a thick Russian accent, the though English was sound.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't our little American friend, Annie, the one who caused us quite a bit of trouble back in Europe. How nice it is to finally meet you. I am finding it shocking that a petite girl such as you has caused so many problems for me and my men. Tell me young one, where exactly did you learn of us. I am curious as to how you got caught up in our business."

Annie stared back into the cold merciless eyes and said nothing. She figured that this was Alik, the boss that was in charge of everything. She also knew that they knew a lot more about here than they were letting on. They had an informant, though it seemed as though the informant kept some pertinent information from the Russians, such as which agency the traitor worked at.

"Hmm. A little quiet are we? According to my men, you have quite the mouth on you. So why don't you use that to tell me what I want to know. It might make the process a lot less painful."

Again, Annie said nothing. She knew they were going to torture her no matter what she said or didn't say. But she would die before she gave up any kind of information so that they could use it against her own country.

"Cat got someone's tongue it seems. We'll see if we can't change that. I'm sure you remember Boris? He was a good friend of yours back in Europe. Boris."

This time Annie recognized the man that walked into her cell. Gone was the cocky attitude that Boris had when Annie first met him. It was replaced by the cold furry of someone who had been humiliated and was set on getting even. If it was possible, Annie was even more terrified, though she hid it from her captors.

"Looks like we meet again Annie. Tell me. Did you have a good time with her little friend? Cuddling on the couch and making dinner together like an actual couple?"

Boris laughed at the shocked face Annie couldn't quite hide.

"Oh yes. We've been watching you. We couldn't just leave things the way we did. We were just waiting for our base to be finished. We had to be prepared before we took you. Didn't want some random agency sending in an army after you like last time. But that's enough talking. I'm not here to ask questions. I'm here to cause pain. So let's get down to it."

After that, there was no noise in Annie's cell except for the pained gasps that Annie couldn't quite hold in, and a random chuckle here and there from Boris, who was enjoying every minute.

At first Boris grabbed his good old fashion knife. He started cutting over the faint scars that his previous cuts had left. Soon almost all of Annie's scars were cut open. Blood was running down her body and the only thing Annie could do was try and calm herself so that the bleeding would slow down. Boris then decided to add salt to the wounds. Literally. He would pour salt into one of the newly opened cuts on Annie's body, and then sit there and rub it in, pushing as hard as he could, enjoying the pained gasps from Annie and laughing at the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes.

Soon, Boris tired of that and started to beat Annie. He would kick her in the gut, or hit her in the face. This went on for another thirty minutes before Boris was called off. Alik had been standing in the corner of the room, watching the whole scene like it was a show.

"I am impressed with you Annie. I am beginning to understand why you caused so much trouble. However, it will get worse. Think about that before we come back tomorrow. It might be in your best interest to answer the questions we ask."

With those final, parting words, Alik and Boris walk out of the room. Annie hears the sound of the door slam shut, and the click of all the locks that were set on the door.

Annie was left on the ground, bruised and bloodied and hardly able to move. She tried to take a deep breath, knowing that it was over for now, but even that was too painful. She was left taking shallow breaths and trying to fall into a deep sleep, where she could escape from the pain, even if was only for a little while. She started thinking about Auggie, and what they might have done on their first date. Annie soon fell asleep with a small smile on her face, images of her and Auggie floating through her mind.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hey everyone! I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this chapter. It was a write as it comes to me kind of chapter. But at least I updated! I did not go over this except with spell check, so I hope you like it. If you have in suggestions please let me know! It's a little later than I had planned on posting, but life happened. My Granny was in town :)**

**Anyways. Sorry for the long waits. I love yall for putting up with my erratic posting and still reading and reviewing my story. It makes my day. Thanks to everyone who has read, favorited, reviewed, and followed my story. Yall are great! Alright. I'm done. It's late and my bed is calling me.**


	12. Chapter 12

Annie sat there, in the dark, listening for the Russians. They hadn't left her alone for very long. At least while she was conscious. They must have learned their lesson from last time and decided that a stricter eye was needed, which coincidentally lead to ore torture. However, as she sat there, Annie heard nothing. She wondered what they were doing, but was grateful for the reprieve. It was the first time she was able to think clearly. She didn't have any gadgets and she was so beaten down that she wouldn't fight her way through like last time (which she still has no idea how she accomplished that feat).

As she sat deep in thought, Annie tried to think of a plan. There had to be some way to at least tell the agency where she was located so they could help. If that wasn't possible, she was determined to at least do some major damage to the organization. If Annie was going down, she was going down fighting.

Either way, she wasn't going to just sit there and be beaten until her body couldn't take any more abuse. She had to do something. If only she had a cellphone or a radi-

That was it. If she could get a hold of a radio or walkie-talkie, she could try different channels and send a message. She knew the guards carried them around. Now the only problem was obtaining one.

Forming a plan, Annie knew she had to be quick. She also knew she was going to get caught. She shivered at the thought of what they would do once they found out what she was going to do. But it was the only thing she could think of with the limited resources she had. Now all she had to do was wait until the next time the Russians decided to pay her a visit.

A couple of hours later, Annie was forced out of her pitiful sleep by the opening of her cell door. As usual Dmitri and Adrik walked in with sadistic smiles on their faces. You would think they got tired of torturing Annie, however this wasn't about getting information on the CIA. This was about revenge.

The sessions varied day by day, switching between old-fashioned physical abuse, knives, drowning, and some other favorites. Sometimes even Boris graced her with his presence, and those days usually ended up being worse than the others. Whoever it was, they always did just enough to Annie for her to suffer, maybe blackout, but never enough to have her close to death. They would beat her, let her sit there for a couple of hours, and then send someone in to patch her up enough so she couldn't get an infection or die. Annie assumed they still wanted to make a deal at some point, her life for money or freedom. Normally that would make her feel better, but she honestly didn't know if they would follow through with the deal, or just kill her once they got the money. The scarier thought to Annie though, was how long it would take for them to get over the fun of torturing her before they called the agency for a deal.

Boris decided that, for today, he would resort to good old-fashioned punching and kicking. Today sessions started as every other session they had. Annie would be questioned, give a smart-ass response, be beaten, and then repeat. Usually Annie held out for as long as she could, forcing herself not to make a sound. Is that an idiotic move? Maybe. But Annie couldn't do a whole lot and not giving them the satisfaction of beating her was one thing she could do.

However today, she was going to give in. She needed to have a clearer and stronger mind today than all the other days. She needed to think straight if she was going to pickpocket the guard.

Annie didn't know if it was because she had a goal in mind rather than sitting there and taking it, but the abuse didn't seem as bad today. She suffered through and didn't try to hold through. Seeing Annie give up, the guards thought she was done for the day, stopped early. They laughed and walked away, proud that they broke Annie's spirit quicker than usual, and as they did so, Annie plucked a walkie-talkie off the one that didn't seem to be in charge.

The second the door slammed shut and the lock clicked in place, Annie fiddled with the walkie-talkie, changing the channel and sending off a her message twice before switching to a new channel and sending it again. Of course while doing this, the doubts Annie had about the plan began to resurface. What if the message wasn't getting through? And even if it was, was anyone on the channels she was getting to? She could only hope that someone got her message, because a few minutes later she heard the sounds of Russians yelling and her prison door being slammed open.

* * *

><p>To say Auggie was handling the situation well would be a lie, though unless you knew Auggie you wouldn't be able to tell how badly he was actually handling it. He hardly ate or said a word to anyone. Instead he would stay at his desk scouring for hints or clues to where Annie was. Many people learned to avoid him and only those that knew him well were brave enough to approach him. Joan would watch from her office, keeping an eye on Auggie and demanding he go home when she thought he needed to. -<p>

No one blamed Auggie for his behavior, least of all Joan. Everyone knew how close Annie and Auggie were. Rare was it to hear one name without the other being said right afterwards. Though many speculated they were together, only Joan believed they had finally taken the next step, or at least were on their way. Because compared to how anxious and worried Auggie was the last time, it was nothing compared to how Auggie was now. Not that he was the only one worried or determined to find Annie, but there was something in his eyes that said he wouldn't be the same if they lost Annie.

Late one evening, as Joan was walking down the stairs to force Auggie to go home yet again, she saw him suddenly sit up, fingers frantically flying across his keyboard reading the new information coming in. Joan stopped and watched as Auggie's face changed to one filled with determination and hope; a far cry from the desolate expression a mere seconds ago.

Suddenly Auggie stood up and turned to go towards Joan's office.

"Auggie. I'm here." Joan said as she completed her descent down the stairs. "What did you find?"

Auggie abruptly stopped, looked up for a second, and smirked. It was nothing like his usual smirk, and it didn't quite reach his eyes, but it was more than anyone had seen since Annie disappeared.

"Impeccable timing as always Joan," he said as he made his way back to his seat. "I think I found Annie. Look."

As Joan walked swiftly to his desk, Auggie pulled up the information onto his screen.

"A lot of people owe me favors. So I contacted a lot of them and asked them to be on the lookout for any kind of odd signal or sign. Anything out of place that they thought could be helpful. I also told them to be on the lookout for the name Shannon Davis, because Annie wouldn't risk her real name getting out where it shouldn't. My buddy in Ohio just called in. They heard it. The full message was glitchy at best, but I tried to track down the signal anyways. I couldn't get an exact location, but I got a general area. It's in the middle of nowhere about 30 miles into the Appalachian Mountains. There can't be that many hidden buildings in that area. Joan. I think I found her."

After Auggie finished, he turned towards her with an expectant look on his face. Joan took a deep breath, mentally going through her options.

"Good job. We'll get as much intel as we can and go in tomorrow or the next day. I know," Joan said sternly, cutting off Auggie's protest, "that you want this done ASAP. But we aren't going in blind and losing more agents. Trust me Auggie. I am going to do my best to get her back as soon as possible. The best thing you can do for her is to go home, get some sleep, some actual sleep, and rest so that you can help with the research tomorrow. Go home Auggie." Joan's voice softened at the end.

Auggie looked back down and took a deep breath. As he exhaled, it was as though al the exhaustion ands tress finally caught up to him. The thing was though Auggie didn't want to sleep. He was scared to. The few times that he fell asleep, he always dreamed of being too late and holding Annie's broken body. And Auggie didn't know if he could handle that if it happened.

However, Auggie knew Joan was right. Joan saw the second Auggie accepted her words. She gently placed her his shoulder and gave a quick squeeze.

"I had already called a cab before I came down here. It should be waiting outside. Please Auggie. Go home. Rest. Come back tomorrow. You did good."

Auggie sighed but eventually got up, grabbed his cane and his jacket, and headed out the doors and down the hallway towards the cab.

* * *

><p>When Auggie arrived back to his apartment, he dropped his coat on the floor, not caring that he would have to deal with it in the morning, and went straight to his couch. Yes, he should have gone straight to bed, but Auggie was still hesitant about the nightmares. They were so close to rescuing Annie, and he didn't want to imagine if they failed. Eventually, Auggie fell asleep anyways, too exhausted to fight sleep anymore.<p>

Auggie was startled awake but his phone ringing loudly. After trying to calm his racing heart, Auggie opened his phone and shut off his alarm and felt his watch to check the time. Seeing he had about an hour before Joan would let him back into the building, Auggie got up, tripping on the jacket from the night before and started his coffee maker and then headed towards his shower. When he emerged, Auggie felt slightly better than he had in the past couple of days. Heading to the kitchen, Auggie called the taxi company while preparing his coffee. While waiting for the cab outside, Auggie took a sip of his coffee and enjoyed the caffeine running through his body while leaning against the side of his building. He was more determine than ever to find Annie, and he would be damned if some Russians took Annie away from him.

It was times like these when Auggie wished most that he could see. For the most part, Auggie accepted that he was blind. He got around well and was fairly independent and could still kick ass with the best of them. But he wanted to be one of the agents out there searching for Annie. He wanted to make the Russians regret they ever laid eyes on his Annie. He wanted to do more than research because the waiting was one thing he could never get used to. And waiting for word on anything Annie related was unbearable.

Hearing the cab's horn brought Auggie out of his thoughts. Shaking his head, Auggie pushed himself off the wall and used his laser to navigate towards the cab, eyes blazing with determination. They were finding Annie today. That much was certain.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know. I can't believe it either. I updated. While I have tons of reasons why I didn't update sooner, some valid, others not, I will not bore you with them. I found a class I can write in because I do nothing in it. So I have started writing again. I will reiterate this. I AM NOT GIVING UP ON THIS STORY. Just in case anyone is doubting that. I actually have more than just this written. Also. Yall can thank Marie King for this chapter being updated today. You're great. So is everyone who has reviewed/favorited/followed this story. Yall are great too. Thank yall for being my motivation :) Review if you like and I hope yall enjoyed it!**


	13. Chapter 13

They hadn't gotten Annie the day after Auggie had his break through, much to his frustration. He understood why of course. He would never want to send anyone out in the field without being prepared. That didn't make it any easier.

It was three days later they sent agents out, but it was only the night beforehand that they informed the rest of the DPD of their plan. Joan and Auggie hadn't forgotten about the mole they had. Only Joan, Auggie, Stu, and Jai knew the plan from day one. They had narrowed it down to someone in the Tech department, and now that Auggie new that they had a mole, he was tracking all emails, calls, texts, and other forms of communication to see who would try and contact them when they told them the plan.

It was simple really. They had agents ready to go at any moment, already in positions by the woods and all roads close to their hideout. So, they would inform everyone of the op, see who contacted the Russians, and ambush them as they tried to escape.

It turned out that it was Matthews, a tech who had been at the agency for about a year. He was getting paid a lot of money to inform the Russians about anything that could harm their operation.

Auggie had tried convinced Joan to let him go at least to the base like last time, but she refused. They needed him here to help with the op and with catching the mole. Auggie knew he was needed, but he wanted to be with Annie. He wouldn't stop worrying until he checked on Annie himself.

Soon enough, Auggie heard the all-go signaling that the Russians were on the move, startling him out of his thoughts. He was glad to have a friend that tried to keep him in the loop as much as possible while doing his job as an agent. Auggie settled himself into his chair, putting on his mic and taking a quick sip of his coffee, preparing himself for the op. A loud crash startled Auggie about a minute in.

"It wasn't bad Auggie. The car just skidded to a halt when it hit the spikes." Agent Reyes said. Auggie was once again grateful for his friend and made a mental note to take him out for drinks after this op.

"Shit..."

Auggie's relief was quickly replaced with dread. Nothing good came after that word.

"Reyes. What's going on? What happened?" Auggie demanded, trying to be as calm as he could be.

"They're using he as leverage. They have a gun to her head Aug."

Auggie's heart dropped. There was nothing he could do and Annie was being used as a shield with a gun to her head. And if there was one thing Auggie hated more than being blind, it was being useless.

"Is she ok? How bad does she look Reyes?"

"I think the crash knocked her out for a bit, but she's coming around. I'm not gonna lie Aug, she doesn't look great. But she's alive."

"Now, now, now," Auggie heard over the mic. "Do you really want to risk me shooting your precious agent in the head? Do you really want to test who's a faster shot?"

"Think!" Auggie berated himself. He was no use to Annie if he was feeling sorry for himself. Auggie took off his headphones for a minute, closing his eyes while trying to think up a solution. His eyes opened when an idea popped into his head. Auggie immediately called Joan, hoping she would listen.

"Yes?" Joan answered curtly. Auggie wasn't the only one worried about the outcome of this op.

"Joan. I think I have a plan that will work."

"Auggie. We have an op in place. We can't just-"

"Joan! They have a gun to her head. We can't risk a gunfight. Please. Just hear me out. It's not crazy, just different than what we originally had planned."

"Let me hear it." Joan resigned after a quick moment of silence. Auggie explained his plan, hoping that he could convince Joan. Finally she agreed, only because they had who they needed on site. Auggie could only hope this worked. He couldn't lose Annie. Not again.

* * *

><p>Annie had more time than she thought she would to send off messages with the walkie talkie. They probably thought that she was too weak to do anything. "You would think they would have learned their lesson by now," Annie thought.<p>

Annie tried her best to continue sending as many messages across as many channels as she could. As soon as she heard footsteps again she quickly broke and dismantled the device, threw it into the corner of the room, and went back to looking pathetic on the floor. Not that it would help her case any, but she could try and look innocent. It was something.

Suddenly the door burst open, slamming into the concrete wall, creating a bang that reverberated throughout the small stone room. Momentarily blinded, Annie didn't see Boris march up to her. However, she did see him when he was yelling in her face.

"Where is it?" Boris shouted as he approached, flanked by his two trustful sidekicks.

"It would help if I knew what you were talking about." Annie replied.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about bitch! Where's my radio? Do you know how much trouble I could get into if I didn't respond to a call? Do you?" Boris was screaming.

"Well. Maybe you should be more careful with your things next time Boris." Annie replied with a smirk.

"Boris! Search the girl. Adrik! Search the room." Boris barked. "He must be scared," Annie thought. She had never seen him so anxious.

"Boris! I found it. It's broken into different pieces." Adrik yelled, picking up some of the individual pieces as evidence. Annie braced herself as she could almost see the anger radiating off of Boris. She could only hope that someone got her message. The last thing Annie saw were the angry faces of three Russians as they dealt out her punishment.

* * *

><p>When Annie came to, the first thing she noticed was the pain radiating from her body. She tried to open her eyes but only one would follow her command. Doing a quick body check, Annie surmised that her thighs, back, and abdominal area were the worst. She didn't even want to see what her bruises looked like.<p>

Looking around the room, Annie saw that there were two bowls by the door, which she assumed held food and water. So they still wanted her alive.

Apparently they were also given orders not to deal any punishment, at least for the moment, because every time someone's entered her little prison, all they've done is replace the food and water. Boris must have gotten in trouble after all because he hadn't been back to visit her, at least while she's been awake.

Annie did know that the head honcho was coming for a visit, wanting to get a glimpse of, and possibly teach a lesson to, the girl that had been causing so much trouble. After eavesdropping on every conversation she could, Annie finally got a name. Vladimir. It may not have been much, but it was certainly more than she had originally.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside her prison. All Annie could hear was a lot of incomprehensible Russian. Obviously something big had happened. Annie jumped when her door was slammed open. Blinded by the sudden light, Annie could only hear footsteps rushing towards her, hands slapping on handcuffs and manhandling her into a standing position. Annie promptly fell as soon as they let her go. Her legs were weak and her ankle still wasn't completely healed.

"Shit!" Annie muttered. That hurt. She didn't realize how badly she had been beaten.

"Can you not stand? Get up! We are evacuating. Let's go!" one of the henchmen yelled. It was one Annie had never seen before.

"I can't idiot. You try walking after getting beaten!" Annie spat. A new voice that was deep and gravely interrupted the next retort.

"Stop. Just carry her. We do not have time for this pointless arguing. We need to leave. Now."

Obviously this man was in charge. The men that let Annie fall quickly picked her back up, none too gently, and proceeded out of the prison without so much as a word.

Annie was half dragged, half carried throughout the base. This one wasn't as elaborate as the other place. In no time at all, Annie was going through the entrance and for the first time in what felt like months, but in reality was more like a couple of weeks, Annie was outside.

It was dark outside, though Annie could see a bit of light, so it must have been early morning. She also saw that trees surrounded them and that she couldn't hear anything that would have suggested that they were near civilization. So they must be in the middle of the woods, well away from anyone. Great.

Annie decided that she should stop contemplating nature and start focusing on the Russian conversation that was taking place right next to her.

"How in the world did they find out where we were?"

"I'm not sure. But I overheard that Boris was going to be severely punished. We're just lucky that we have an inside man in the CIA or we never would have known about the ambush."

So her message had gotten through to someone. At least her plan had worked. And if the mole in the CIA knew where she was, that almost certainly meant that Auggie did as well, and that made Annie feel significantly better. Everything would be alright if Auggie had caught on to her scent.

The only thing that was troubling her now was the mole. Did they know who the mole was? Did they plant false information to the mole so they could rescue her? Or was the mole someone trusted who would know the true plan if they went for a trick at all?

Annie had no idea what was going on. But she had to place her faith in Auggie like she had done countless times before. He would get her out. Of that she was certain.

Annie was violently disrupted from her thoughts when she got thrown into the back of an armored car. Vladimir and one of his guards joined her in the back of the car before the doors were slammed shut. "Well," Annie thought. "At least there's light this time."

"So. You are the famous Annie Walker." Vladimir spoke once they started to move. "You don't look like much, but obviously there's something about you since you continuously cause my men problems. How is that?"

"Have you ever considered that your men are just incompetent idiots?" Annie snarked.

"You're a feisty one, you are. I think you'll be lots of fun once we get out of this godforsaken country." Vladimir replied with a smile.

Just as Annie was about to respond, the car jerked to a stop and Annie got thrown to the ground, unable to steady herself with her wrists being in handcuffs and all. Hitting her head during the sudden stop, Annie lost consciousness for a bit while hoping beyond hope that she wasn't imagining the American voices yelling outside.

When Annie came to, she heard Vladimir yelling and felt a gun pressed to her head. Well that's a nice surprise to wake up to. Slowly opening her yes, she saw agents surrounding them with guns trained on Vladimir.

"Now, now, now," Vladimir started saying. "Do you really want to risk me shooting your precious agent in the head? Do you really want to test who's a faster shot?"

Annie always hated when the bad guys tried to gamble a hostage for freedom. It made things so much more complicated.

"Here is what's going to happen. You are going to let us walk away. I don't want anyone following us. I'm going to leave one man here with a radio and the second I even think something's wrong, the girl dies. Understood?"

"There's no way they'd agree to that." Annie thought.

Suddenly one of the agents shouted out in response, "Agreed! Everyone but Evans, put their weapons down. For protection of course." He added when Vladimir raised an eyebrow.

"Well, so much for not agreeing to that plan." Annie thought. She hoped they knew what they were doing. But then again, Auggie had to be somewhere here, and if not she knew he had to have been in the plan. And she trusted Auggie.

"That is acceptable." Vladimir agreed. Turing towards his men, he started to speak to them in Russian. "Dmitri. Stay here. Everyone else, let's go." As they started to move Annie felt the grip on her wrists tighten as well as the gun being pressed harder onto her head. She really hoped they knew what they were doing.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hello all. Yes. I know. It's a miracle. I actually updated. It'll probably after finals that I update again BUT I will still write when I can. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, etc. Yall are great. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has stuck with me even though I am absolutely terrible at updating. I know I am not a great writer (more of a music person really) so thanks for sticking with me! If yall have the time, please review so I know what yall think. If not, no big deal. Thanks again! :)**


	14. Chapter 14

Being carried by angry, nervous Russians was not a walk in the park. Annie was thrown over one of the grunts shoulders and then carried like a sack of potatoes through the forest they were apparently in, which isn't at all comfortable given the amount of bruises covering her body.

"Sir. What's the plan? Where are we headed to next?" asked one of the grunts, whose name Annie never learned.

"Silence!" Vladimir hissed. "Follow me and keep quiet until we are sure we cannot be heard by unwanted ears. We do not want a repeat of what just happened."

Well there went learning whatever Annie could about their organization. She huffed at her uselessness. She couldn't even try and escape because there was no way she could make it to the thicker part of the forest before Vladimir shot her. So instead she spent her time wondering what Langley could be planning. They wouldn't have given in that easily if they had nothing.

An hour later and Annie still had no idea what the agency was planning. None of the agents back at the crash could leave without her dying and none of the people surrounding her had any kind of tracking device on them.

Suddenly Annie felt the air being sliced through by a bullet and then the hard surface of the forest floor as the grunt carrying collapsed, dropping her as well. Too late, the other grunts and Vladimir were turning around seeing what the commotion was before they too were shot. The only one that wasn't fatally wounded was Vladimir, but the bullet had gone through his shoulder.

If it weren't for Annie's quick reflexes, then she would have died. But luckily she realized Vladimir had dropped his gun before he did, and she lunged from her spot on the floor towards the gun, grabbing it, and aiming it at Vladimir before he registered what had happened.

"Shit." Was all Annie heard come from Vladimir's mouth before he held up his one good arm in a placating gesture.

Annie pushed herself up into a sitting position while keeping her gun trained on the Russian boss. Someone had to be there soon and hell would freeze over before she let him get away.

After a good ten minutes and a couple of meaningless threats from Vladimir, back up had finally arrived.

"About time you guys got here. He was getting a little antsy." Annie said as Evans and the other agents approached them.

"We came as fast as we could but this forest is a bitch. You ok Annie?"

"As ok as I can be after all this. Give me a week or two and I'll be as good as knew and ready to kick some ass again."

"Whatever you say Annie." Evans chuckled in reply.

Soon, Annie was being carried back, much more gently than before, to the site of the crash so that she could be taken to the hospital and looked over. All Annie wanted to do was go home and sleep, but she knew that wasn't an option because even if she could sneak away, Auggie would make sure she left the hospital when and only when the doctors cleared her.

* * *

><p>Hours later and Annie found herself on a hospital bed hooked up to a couple of different machines and medicines and bandages all over her body. The doctors told her that she had extensive bruising on her ribs, backs, and legs. Everywhere really. She had a couple of ribs and her right ankle would need to be in a boot for a couple of weeks. She had lacerations everywhere. Luckily most of them were fairly shallow and would heal without the use of stitches. She was also being given a drip of high-grade antibiotics and something for her dehydration.<p>

All in all, she was beat up, but she would live. And the doctor only wanted her to stay for a couple of days to make sure she didn't overexert herself (like Annie would do that) and that none of the lacerations became infected.

Annie had multiple visitors including Stu and Greg and even Joan, who had made sure she was ok and said she could debrief later within the next couple of days, which Annie was grateful. Annie was disappointed though, that Auggie still hadn't shown up. She was getting tired slightly embarrassed of looking up hopefully every time someone knocked on her door and then trying to hide her disappointment when it wasn't Auggie.

By ten o'clock that night, Annie was exhausted and was just settling in to sleep when there was another knock on the door. Annie really didn't feel like having another visitor, having given up a couple of hours ago that the one person she really wanted to see wasn't coming that day when, low and behold, the man that had been occupying her thoughts all day came walking through the door.

"Annie?" Auggie said softly, unsure if she was awake her not.

"Where have you been?" Annie replied.

Auggie jumped slightly, not expecting such a forceful response when he entered the room. Using his laser, Auggie found a chair, dragged it to the bed, sat down and grabbed Annie's hand.

"I know, I know. It's past visiting hours. Ow!" Auggie yelped in response to the hit on his arm.

"Sorry, sorry. I was busy dealing with the mole in the agency and making sure we had all the evidence we needed to keep him in jail for a long time." He said, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

"You couldn't have called?" Annie asked in small voice. She felt stupid for being so upset that he hadn't come earlier, it really bugged her that she had to go through all this without him when she had become so accustomed to him being there every other time she had been injured on the job.

"I know. I'm sorry," He replied softly. "I needed to make sure that this son of a bitch was going to jail after what he helped put you through. It was the one thing I could do throughout this whole thing, and damn it I was going to do it right." Auggie's voice became harder the more he talked.

"Auggie…You helped more than you even know. You are what got me through this. I knew you would have a plan, that you wouldn't give up until you found me, and that helped me get through this whole ordeal, knowing that I had you in my corner. Don't ever think that you're useless because I need you more than you will ever know."

"Annie…"

"I'm serious Auggie. I need you. I needed you on my first day when I was still naïve about everything that went on in the agency and what they did. I needed you when I had no idea how to fight because all I knew was the crap they taught us at the agency. I needed you through the whole Ben affair. I need you on every mission I go on because it just doesn't feel right when you aren't in my ear. I need you in my life because you get me through the hard days and make the good days even better. I need you Auggie."

By the time Annie had finished her speech, a couple of tears had made their way down her face and falling onto Auggie's hands. When Auggie felt them, he brought his own hands to her face, gently brushing the tears still on her face. Auggie had no idea what to say in response to that. The fact that Annie needed him as much as he needed her blew him away.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He cradled her face between his hands, took a deep breath, and said the words he had been thinking for the past couple of weeks but had been too afraid to say.

"Annie Walker. I love you."

Then he found her lips with his thumbs and kissed her.

The kiss was a gentle one, just a soft caress of the lips. Both of their hearts were racing, happiness flowing through both of them. Annie pulled back with a smile on her face.

"I love you, August Anderson."

Then Annie pulled him back in for another kiss, this one deeper than the last. Annie moved her arms around Auggie's neck and pulled him as close as she could from a hospital bed. It was actually a good thing that Auggie came later, because no one came to check up on Annie, leaving them to kiss to their hearts content.

After an indefinite amount of time, their kisses slowed and Auggie pulled away with one of the biggest smiles on his face Annie had ever seen.

"Damn."

Annie laughed, feeling lighter than she had in a while, which was quickly followed by a jaw-cracking yawn.

"Well. Someone's ready for bed." Auggie said.

"Somebody was about to sleep before she was molested."

"I didn't hear any complaining."

"My mouth was otherwise engaged."

"Again, I heard no complaints. Because I'm just that good."

"Whatever you want to believe Auggie."

"Go to bed Annie." Auggie replied, stopping the banter before it got too out of hand. He bent down and kissed Annie's forehead.

"Will you be here in the morning?" Annie asked, settling down to sleep.

"Wouldn't miss it for the word. Night Annie. I love you." Auggie said softly, rubbing his thumbs over her knuckles.

Annie's face broke out into a smile when she heard those words again. Words she wasn't sure she would have the chance to hear again.

"Love you too Auggie."

Annie fell asleep soon afterwards, and Auggie stayed the whole night, falling asleep in the chair next to her bed, not wanting to leave her side for the foreseeable future.

The next morning, Annie learned that she would be able to go home within the next couple of days. After the whole ordeal, Annie was left with a couple of scars on her stomach and her back, but that was the only permanent injury. She was stuck in a boot for about two weeks and she couldn't do any strenuous activity for a month.

Of course, Annie also learned what happened behind the scenes that had lead to her rescue. There were still some agents that were doing paperwork at the agency, and Auggie asked the ones who were good with snipers if they would help them out. Of course they said yes. After they were given a general direction, which was narrowed down because of the walkie talkie they still had on them, the snipers were positioned about an hours walk from the crash site, which luckily wasn't too far from the interstate.

The rest Annie knew. Again her life was saved because of Auggie's quick thinking and after Auggie had explained what happened, Annie threw her arms around his neck, hugging him for a long time while whispering thank you, parting when the doctor came in to do a check up.

* * *

><p>The day finally came when Annie could leave the hospital. It was kind of an unspoken agreement that Annie would go to Auggie's apartment once she was released. While her sister knew that she had been hurt, and had even visited her in the hospital, she didn't want the girls to see her like this. And Annie would much rather room with her new boyfriend while she was recovering.<p>

Luckily, this time Annie could walk by herself more or less. Once they got back to the apartment, Annie headed towards Auggie's bedroom, gently threw herself on the bed (damn injuries), and hugged a pillow.

Auggie laughed once he heard his bed creak. He put his cane in its proper place and then made his way to his bedroom, stopping in his doorway.

"Shoes?"

"Corner of the room, out of the way." Came Annie's muffled reply.

Making his way to the side of the bed that was unoccupied, Auggie slid his shoes off, got on the bed, and made his way towards Annie. Once he found her body, he dragged her close to him, spooning her from behind, and took a deep breath. For the first time in days, Auggie finally felt completely relaxed. Annie signed contently and snuggled deeper into Auggie's embrace.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

No other words were needed. Both were content, happy to finally be out of the hospital, in each other's arms, safe. It was the best night's sleep either of them had in a long time.

**A/N: Hey all! It's slightly late by a couple of weeks, but given my track record I don't think that's too bad! I just had inspiration tonight so I finished this chapter. Summer is a lot busier than I wanted it to be. I hope all of yall's summers are going great! I passed all my finals so yay! Anyways. I hope yall enjoy this chapter. It was slightly difficult to write but I did it! A huge thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, or followed my story. It means more than yall can even imagine. I would love if yall could take the time to leave a review, that way I know how I'm doing. But anyways. Hope yall enjoyed. They finally kissed! ^.^**


End file.
